Authors' Notes:

Alright, this one took a lot of energy out of me. I was originally planning on making a regular sized chapter and having it uploaded a few weeks ago. It ended up being 3-4 times longer than I expected. On the downside, you had to wait. On the plus side, you get multiple chapters at once.

Likewise, I'm going on hiatus once more for the next couple of months. I wanted this part to be extra long for that. I'm taking a certification exam and will be back after I've passed it.

"Text"

"Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout, RWBY, or any associated characters.

Remnants of a Courier

Arc 4: Chaos Theory

Chapter 35: In the Pale Moonlight

Devliotos let out a yawn as he stared into the mirror. Another boring day. Brush his teeth, pick at the scar that ran down his cheek, check the time; 7:30PM. His shift was done so he could take off the bone-like grey mask he was forced to wear throughout the day and set it down on the sink.

Yellow narrow-slitted eyes stared back at him. Running one hand through his auburn hair, he used his other to finger-gun himself in the mirror. His tanned complexion, sharp facial features, and perfect smile were all on point. Dev was good looking and he knew it.

"Stop admiring yourself and let me use the bathroom."

And that would be his not-so-good looking brother in arms Orion.

"Fine, whatever," he replied while picking up his mask and heading back into the bunkroom. He shared a room with three others.

The first was Orion, the lizard-like Faunus who was far too pale for his liking. He needed a nice tan before he could even approach Dev's tier. Add to that the odd scales here and there and he wasn't popular with the ladies. And lose the gross stretchy tongue too.

Then there were the others. Lika and Dorn.

Lika was a mammal Faunus of some kind. She tried telling him once what kind of animal. Apparently, it was something that lived in the sand in Vacuo. Some kind of rat and fox hybrid. Either way, she had blonde hair and blonde dog-like ears, fair skin, overall average.

Then there was Dorn. The stoic and reserved one. Big, brawny, older, no outwardly animal-like features. Sub-average in Dev's opinion. He always wondered what kind of animal the big guy took after.

Not that it mattered, they were all here for the same reason. To make sure humans never stepped on them again.

But Dev didn't like thinking about stuff like that. He'd rather focus on the positives, like getting some grub and sleeping.

"Hey Dev, did you hear that they found the Poacher?" Lika said in-between mouthfuls of a sandwich. "Ya know, the guy who put down dozens of protests before they began then had one of the largest body counts in the Revolution?"

Dev sat down on his bed across from Lika; it was the bottom of a bunk bed he shared with Orion.

"What's happening to him?" Dev questioned while rummaging in his bag for a sandwich of his own. Good food was a bit harder to come by this far out from the city.

"The Lieutenant sent a squad after him. He's old and won't be ready in his own home right?"

"Or he kills 'em n' shends us a pwesent," Orion responded from the bathroom before spitting out his toothpaste. "He's real good at the whole interrogation thing I hear."

"He's one old man, how dangerous can he be?" Dev picked up, doubting that any old-timer could take one of them, let alone a whole squad.

Dorn grunted his response, earning a frown from Dev.

"Ya got something to say big guy?"

Before the bigger man could respond, their radios buzzed.

"Attention, we're raising the alert level. All White Fang, to defensive positions."

That was the boss. Guess it was serious.

"Alright everyone, masks and gear on," Orion said as he donned his uniform. Dev always hated the uniforms, they were tacky and didn't fit his Mistral aesthetic of flowing and colorful attire.

The group changed quickly having done so hundreds of times. By the time Dev had his mask on, the rest of his squad was waiting for him at the door.

"Coming slowpoke?" Lika teased before sticking her tongue out at him.

Dev let out a sigh but followed the rest of his team; picking up his rifle as he walked after them.

A few other White Fang soldiers walked past the group as they stepped into the grey hall. On either side stretched unfeeling, boring, and grey cement. The entire base was barren and cold like this. The needy couldn't be picky.

Orion made sure to grab one by the arm before asking, "what's the hurry?"

The smaller woman he happened to grab turned before saying, "we've got a couple scouts that stopped reporting in. We're moving to alert status until we hear from them."

After answering, their sister shrugged off Orion before heading towards another team.

"Think it's the Poacher?" Lika teased again while smirking at Dev.

"What's an old man going to be able to do?" He spat back, not really enjoying the verbal jabs.

Then the lights went out.

"The fuck?" Dev questioned as they were left in darkness for a few seconds before a thrumming beneath them kicked in. The lights returned but dimmed. The backup generator just kicked in.

Knowing what that meant, the group kicked it into overtime to reach their designated position. In times of emergency, their group was designated as the rear guard. Meant to head to and secure the back before guarding the rear entrance.

Having been drilled on this dozens of times, the group was swift in their response. They scoured each room in pairs of two, ensuring each one was empty as they made their way to the north side of the first floor.

Grey hall after grey hall met them. The only differing feature being a few small cracks here and there. Each room was clear, no suspicious activity, no enemy, nothing at all.

It was setting off every alarm bell in Dev's mind. If they were being attacked, why didn't they know by who yet? And why hadn't they attacked already?

Despite what most would say, Dev considered himself perceptive. Not so much to people but rather to danger. It was easy for him to pick out when to stay and when to go given a situation. And right now his body was screaming at him to run.

The group moved to the back and to their final destination, a metal door with one small reinforced window inside it. He took cover with Dorn on the left side behind a metal crate they set up for drills. Orion and Lika set up in a doorway on the other side.

Time after that ticked by agonizingly slow. One minute, two, then three. Then Lika finally spoke up.

"Are we sure anyone is even here? Maybe we just have some deserters?"

Then the power kicked off. That meant their backup generator had been disabled. Their backup generator was located in the safest room in the base. The basement.

With the layout of the building, a Faunus would have to get to the central staircase located in the middle of the building before descending down. Once they were in, they would be faced with a console and a sealed vault door. Inside were their sect's records, plans, and a select few important weapons.

If someone had turned off the generator, that meant they were already inside.

Dev took one last glance out the small window on the door they were guarding and watched an orange and yellow sunset over the red treeline of the forest. The only light bleeding into the now dark base.

"Lights on-"

Before Orion could finish, an explosion shook the base. Dev had to grip his cover to not fall over-

Another explosion sent him to his knees. Then another, and another. The entire building shook, sending dust and bits of the ceiling down on them.

By the time Dev got to his feet with his flashlight on, he was coughing from the dust in the air. At least none of them were hurt.

Their radios lit up with comm chatter, people were reporting injured and dead allies on every floor. Parts of the building having been caved in from the explosions.

Apparently, the main fighting force at the front entrance had caught the worst of it. The entire area was caved in and only a few even made it out of the area.

That was when the screaming started.

Radio chatter blew up again on the second floor.

"What's going on? What's happening?" Orion demanded in a tone that breathed uncertainty.

"We've got an intruder on the second floor, don't know where, he's-"

The radio went silent.

This was bad. Only one type of person could cause this level of damage. A Huntsman.

"I'm getting to the basement, we can't fight in the dark," Dev said as he moved down the hall, using his flashlight to guide him. The dust and debris created a thin cloud that obscured his vision and caused him to cough.

"Fall in behind him," Orion commanded as the group set forward.

It didn't take them long to get through the area though it was eerie. The deathly quiet halls did little to soothe their fears. This also made them jump whenever a scream would ring out from above them. They needed to hurry.

They rounded a corner and came to the staircase the group was looking for. It led both up and down. Taking it down here would lead to their destination.

The team did their best to quickly yet quietly descend the stairs. The only sounds that accompanied them was their breathing, footsteps, and an occasional scream from above.

Once at the bottom, Orion stepped forward. The room was small, maybe twenty by fifteen feet. On the opposite side of the room was the large vault door hanging wide open.

"How the hell did the intruder get inside?" Lika questioned as she stepped away from the stairs. The mammal Faunus took a few steps toward the open vault before Dev put a hand in front of her.

"The hell is that?" Dev accused as he pointed towards the bottom of the door.

Just inside the vault, partially obscured by the door, was a small round and green device on the ground.

"Looks like a mine," Dorn answered, taking a step past the group. "Wait here, I will handle it."

The tall Faunus held out his hand before closing his eyes and focusing. After a moment, a translucent orange dome formed around the mine. Once formed, Dorn took a step forward and the device detonated, cracking the dome from the force and filling it with a strange green light.

Dev hadn't been aware that Dorn had his Aura unlocked, let alone that he had a Semblance to boot. Why wasn't he on a more specialized team?

"Good work Dorn," Orion complimented as he took a step forward, only to have Lika stop him with a raised hand as Dorn let the dome disappear.

"It doesn't smell right." She commented, taking another sniff of the air. "I think we shouldn't stay in whatever that is," the female Faunus continued while pointing at the green energy floating where the mine once was.

Orion nodded his head before approaching the green cloud. He hesitated for a moment to pass through it and in that hesitation the green energy slowly dissipated.

"Guess that problem solved itself," Dev commented as he followed after Orion. "Weird weapon."

Inside the vault was another narrow but long room. On one side was a rack with various weapons ranging from common to rare. On the other was a long counter holding documents and consoles containing likely important information if Dev had to guess. And in the back was the generator.

"Dorn, generator. Lika, start destroying those documents and computers. Dev, keep an eye out." Orion's orders were to the point and the group descended into their roles quickly.

Using his Faunus senses, it was easy for Dev to peer into the darkness outside the vault door and ensure no one was coming. He could also hear his partners getting to work as Lika began smashing the consoles.

It didn't take long before the lights flared back to life and Dev had to close his eyes for a moment. The generator was once more beating with energy again as Orion walked over to him.

"Is anyone still standing?" The leader of their squad questioned as he turned on his radio.

There was a pause. Nothing. The gunfire had ceased a couple minutes prior to the generator turning on. It made Dev nervous. Made him wipe away sweat from his eyes as he stared intently past the vault door and at the stairwell.

"We've got a few teams on floor three." That was a voice Dev didn't recognize coming through his radio. "Haven't seen him here yet but all the fighting on floor two stopped."

"Roger, I'm taking our team and leaving. We'll regroup at location LD for anyone still alive." Orion's response spurred memories within Dev. LD was another base on the other side of the Capital of Vale. A long walk but he supposed that was better than being dead.

Lika walked over with a smile on her face and burning scraps behind her. "Ready when you are boss."

Dev finally took his eyes off the door and turned to Orion. The lizard Faunus was carrying some sort of large rifle. It glowed red and was over twice the size of Dev's rifle.

"What're ya doing with that?"

"Taking it with us," he replied in a neutral tone as he stepped out the vault door. "We're moving out."

"It's here! Third floor, third floor!" A panicked voice said over the radio which was drowned out by static. This was followed by more muffled gunfire from above them.

"Double-time it people, we're leaving!" Their leader commanded as he began jogging up the stairwell.

The group followed after him, Lika calling out, "but what about the others on the third floor?"

"We can't risk it, if they can't handle it, we can't either. No use having everyone here die." Orion's response brought a frown to Dev's face. He understood the sentiment but it still felt wrong to leave any Faunus to die to whatever monster was slaughtering everyone.

The group quickly made their way up the stairs before heading back towards the rear exit they were originally supposed to guard. They needed to hurry before whatever was on the third floor was finished with the others.

They jogged down the hall at a decent pace before rounding a corner and coming to a stop.

In front of them stood four women. One in red, one in white, one in black, and one in yellow. All of them were armed.

"Are those Huntresses?" Dev asked, more dumbfounded than actually curious. The gunfire was still going on upstairs so they couldn't be the ones killing everyone.

"Yep! you've got one chance to sit down before we beat you down, understand?" The one in yellow demanded as she punched her fists together. He couldn't lie either, she was drop-dead gorgeous other than her wanting to kill him.

Dev took a quick glance at his compatriots and realized a few things.

Dorn was stoic at all times. Even now. It was weird.

Lika could look completely wide-eyed and wild when she wanted to. Though he assumed that was more her being afraid than eager.

And finally, their leader had a death glare that was going to get them killed.

Deciding to be the smooth operator and personable one in the group, Dev naturally stepped forward while placing a hand on Orion's chest.

"Excuse me, but if you can't hear the gunfire going on upstairs, we're running away. I suggest you do too." Giving his best toothy grin, the snake-like Faunus continued, "whatever is upstairs killed everyone here with no effort. I know you Huntresses are tough but I think even you might be…"

His speech trailed off as he recognized one of them; no, two. Black hair, bow to cover her ears, wasn't that the big boss's…

"Nah, trust me, we got this, right Rubes?" The yellow one commented while elbowing the one in red.

Hefting her giant scythe into the air, only to scrape it on the ceiling and then lower it down, the red one elbowed the yellow one back. "As a team, we can take anything."

"Please, just put down your weapons, we don't want to hurt you." It was Blake who spoke this time, no mistaking it, that was the traitor Blake Belladonna.

And the last one was a Schnee. But she seemed quiet compared to her friends. She looked like she was contemplating something or maybe nervous instead? As much as Dev would have liked to put a Schnee in her place, they weren't in a position to do so.

Dev was tempted to comment on either the Schnee or the traitor but then something caught his attention. Or rather, the lack of something. All of the gunfire had stopped.

The Faunus felt his body tense at the realization as a cold dread crept over him.

"Listen, we need to go no-"

The sound of Orion letting out a yelp from behind him caused Dev to turn.

It was here.

It was dressed in all black, standing a good head taller than Dev too. Its armor seemed to almost melt into the shadows of the dark coat it was wearing. Of course, that wasn't what drew his attention. It was the glowing red eyes set into the white bone-like mask that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a Grimm. They glowered down at him with a rage the Faunus had never known.

The man, no, the thing in front of him was covered in blood. The entire left portion of his body was dripping with the red substance. The other half had more than one stain on it as well and there was a large splatter of blood across his mask.

It was the Mimic.

And he had Orion by the collar. Despite that, he kept staring straight at Dev. Why? Why was he doing that?

A low and distorted voice spoke to him. Its tone reminded him of a raging fire despite the cool temperature of the hall.

"I suppose I should thank you for having the decency to fear me."

Then the Mimic reared his arm back, on his forearm was a gauntlet, unlike any Dev had seen. In one swift motion, he brought it into Orion's face and the gauntlet seemed to extend itself into his friend.

An explosion followed after as the monster drove Orion into the cement floor, cracking it. The Mimic turned his head to the rest of the group, having gone to a kneeling position to drive Orion into the cement.

Dev knew what felt wrong before, what his gut had tried to warn him about. He was going to die, they were all going to die.

The thing withdrew the now bloodied gauntlet from Orion's head. The Faunus on the ground still sputtered from time to time despite a quarter of his skull having been completely caved in or blown off. Blood pooled under his head as his still intact eye rolled to the back of his socket.

Orion was really dead, the Mimic was really here, he had killed everyone!

And they were next.

It had been almost too easy.

Faunus may have been perceptive to average people, but above average perception would get no one anywhere near the Courier.

Especially once he had donned the Modified Mark II Stealth Suit with his customized helmet. Add a Pip-Boy on top of that and it was as easy as walking in. Well, walking in after murdering a couple of scouts in the woods and hiding their bodies.

Of course, he stopped to create makeshift remote explosives with his remaining grenades. It was lovingly contained in a parcel with a hook mechanism designed to set off the grenades when he pressed the detonator.

Once inside, he watched and waited. Moving to strategic points throughout the building. Places where they'd likely congregate such as support structures and entryways; and especially the main entrance.

The Courier took extra care to place his makeshift explosives and the remaining C4 in these places. Once that was done he cut the main power to the building which was secretly siphoning off power from the capital.

That made the backup generator kick in and thus sent the building into lockdown. Most exits were blocked off, guards were moved into position, and the lieutenant revealed himself. A quick scan from his helmet revealed him to be one of the two lieutenants that were on the mission in the Forever Fall Forest with him. Not that his identity would give him mercy from the Courier.

So he crept downstairs and changed into his Mimic attire as he waited. One minute, two, then three minutes he spent finessing his way into the base's vault where their secondary power was coming from. It was a deviation from the standardized code he was used to but that didn't stop him for long.

The vault door was connected to the vault's internal computer for authentication of people coming in. And since the door had an interface panel for gaining access, this meant he had a physical connection to the computer through the panel. With that connection, he forced a restart of the computer that managed the door and exploited the operating system vulnerability their computer was running on. This got him into the boot menu where he could start up a repair tool from his Pip-Boy which would bypass the need to log in to access the command window for the door's software. One command entered in that window and the vault door was open.

Once inside, disabling the generator was easy. And once that was done, they were left in total darkness, which meant the fun could begin.

Activating the explosives removed most of the enemy opposition and crippled their remaining defenses. From there it was easy to pick them off one by one with another Stealth Boy. Sure, he was now dangerously low on Stealth Boys but it meant he was never seen.

It was lethal precision and a professional job that had been carried out. Targets were executed quickly and quietly by him followed by panicked shouting from their friends. Though he did take some level of satisfaction every time he got one alone. Then he took his time beating them to death.

So now all he had to do was catch up to this last squad heading for the rear exit. This was the last of the White Fang in the base so he could take his time. Everyone else had either died due to the explosions or his cleanup. Thirty seven people dead in the span of 10 minutes.

He crept along behind them, his footsteps silent to even himself as he hunched down. One foot in front of the other, slowly. He'd start with the ball of his foot and gradually place the rest of his foot down. Noise from walking was negated by this gradual process.

Six calmed his breathing, taking long and drawn out breaths, slowing his breathing and his heartbeat.

And when he got close enough, he-

Team RWBY was here. That was an issue.

The Courier took a few moments to evaluate the situation. Remaining cloaked, he listened to their banter. The usual hero talk and bargaining. It gave him time to assess.

If he engaged them now, he would no doubt fight team RWBY. And he didn't know if he could get out of the fight without revealing his ability to hit through their Aura. A secret he wanted to keep for as long as possible.

However, if he didn't fight team RWBY, then these White Fang would get away. It was unacceptable. They had wronged not only him but Carmine. In his own house.

Steeling himself, the Courier stood to his full height and finally decloaked when he grabbed the collar of the nearest Faunus.

Pulling the Faunus up so that he barely stood on his toes, Six turned to stare at the other White Fang soldiers. Out of all of them, one was far more terrified than the others. Good, he should be. He'd let that one live, have him tell the others of what happened here.

Six delivered some cheesy line he thought up on the spot before driving the bastard he was holding into the ground. A quick death, more than he deserved. It was nice to know his new powerfists worked. Burn Dust was a hell of a boost to the weapon too.

Standing up, the Mimic turned to address his other nuisances. It was so tiring to deal with the same interlopers time and time again.

"How many more are you going to make me kill before you learn your lesson little Huntresses? You can't win."

Author's Notes:

I'll be posting what gear he has left in a couple of chapters as I'll be uploading this chapter with two others at the same time.

I realized that while writing this chapter I made a mistake in one of my previous ones. In an earlier chapter the Courier was in the Forever Fall Forest. I thought this was on the southern side of the capital of Vale, it's on the northern side. This is corrected in this chapter and I may go back and correct it in the previous chapter.

For any interested. That operating system vulnerability is an actual thing in the real world. It only works on older operating systems. Though I took a few liberties with the process.