Sandstorm over Remnant

Chapter 5

Bridging the gap

Winter walked as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself and her tall companion as Six walked behind her with a soda he had stolen from Ruby "Man these things could kill a fiend high on jet, double the heart acceleration. That girl needs to tone it down with the sweet stuff might give herself a heart attack"

"I am close to a heart attack right now"

Six narrowed his eyes "So I guess this problem is something more than those creatures huh?" Winter nodded quickly "I was going over details about my disappearance and the storm that appeared with us. You won't believe this but there where signs of our arrival weeks before we appeared, can you believe that? Even before I went missing I was already traveling home"

Six blinked in confusion "I don't follow"

"Yeah I also don't fully understand, but that's not the emergency. Another signal is coming through" Winter commented as they arrived at a small part of the city under atlas control, a small ship awaited for them "Get in" Six nodded as he braced himself for the small trip. It amazed the courier how bright the city was, like if the New Vegas Strip was stretched across an entire valley with Beacon acting like a Lucky Thirty-eight look alike.

The jewel in the crown.

"Specialist Schnee! General Ironwood is waiting for you please follow me" a guard said as they arrived at the battleship Six wanted to roll his eyes at the rest of the staff that started muttering about him, yes those were two bullet wounds on his head. Yes he did use an eyepatch, shame no one could see the large scars on both his spine and chest it would make for a hell of party trick but he decided not to voice his comments for Winter's sake after all from the way that everyone saluted and nodded at her it would seem that she was quite the star here.

As a large door opened Six was greeted by the sight of a stressed general surrounded by about a dozen scientist "Sir!" Winter saluted as she turned to Six "I brought him, we can proceed with the…"

General Ironwood raised his hands and turned to the scientist "All of you, thank you. Take the night off and tell the staff sergeant that I am not to be bothered. As for you two… well you better take a look at this" Winter and Six shared a look as they approached a map of Vale with a couple of markers on it.

"Sir what is this?"-"We have identified a connection of both your arrival and disappearance, some of the meteorologist a couple of weeks ago came to Ozpin with worries about large gatherings of electrical energy across the region" Winter hummed as she identified the site of her disappearance and where she arrived.

Six narrowed his eyes "So… what is this one then?"

A marker blinked as the General stiffened "That's why you are here, from what Winter told me you and your boss are the only one who can authorize travels across dimensions. Is this Mr. House sending another group here?"

Six shook his head "No, it's not part of the plan we made. And unless it's an emergency I don't picture the man going back on a plan he spent so many days drafting" This made the general frown "So then I have to ask, are we under attack?"

"This… I don't think so no one in the wasteland knew of this and even if someone noticed no one could build something like that, NCR scientist and the Followers are not on the level of the Brains"

Ironwood turned to Winter for clarification on what the Brains where but Winter decided it was not time to open that can of worms so she tried to think of who else could have access to such power technology "… and what of the Brotherhood? Could they have tracked the signal down?"

Six tensed up as he gave a tentative nod "I mean, maybe. We did let them leave… shit just how big is the chapter of the brotherhood on The Capital Wasteland?" Winter hummed as she tried to piece anything in her mind "I have no idea, from what the scribes said they had lost communication and it had only recently come back online. But it doesn't matter if it is California or The Capital Wasteland… why would they do this?"

General Ironwood looked at them "I am afraid I feel a little bit left out of the conversation, this brotherhood of steel is not someone that was mentioned in your report speciliast Schnee. Are they a threat?"

"Negative Sir, they are well…"-"They are a quasi-religious group that has swore to protect technology because it ended the world and it should not be left in the hand of simple humans. So they raid and take technology from across the wasteland to and this is their words by the way: keep it safe" Six said as he frowned as he remembered his interactions with the group.

Winter snorted "They have more good points than what the courier Six makes it out to be. They have saved the world multiple times and they are correct in keeping some technology from the hands of the powers of the wasteland, nuclear technology to be precise"

Ironwood hummed as he turned to look at Vale from one of the large windows "Doesn't sound like a group that would try to invade us, so we can rule them out from the list of potential invaders?" Six rubbed the back of his head.

"Not just yet, Vegas and them have a… poor reputation at the moment" Six commented as Winter let out a sigh "They might think that he is doing something that might damage mankind, but the brotherhood can be talked to" Ironwood let out a sigh. Another gamble to take then, the general turned to his specialist and her… courier and watched them for a second, the courier seemed to be pondering something while Winter typed something onto her PipBoy as she had called the machine on her wrist.

Ironwood grunted "So we just have to wait and see then? Wait to see if they are friend or foe and then act accordingly?" Winter looked at the data and shook her head "We might have time, you said that the energy was detected weeks before the portal was opened both times so we have time to prepare"

Six hummed "I would hate to bring trouble here because of my fuck-up, if we can build the portal and check from the other side what is going I might be able to stop this before it reaches Remnant after all they hate Vegas and me not anyone else and as deluded as they are the Brotherhood are not monsters who attack anyone without notice"

Ironwood liked that a bit more, he turned to Winter who seemed to be a little uncomfortable with the idea "I don't know Six, I think it might be too early to build the portal. I trust in the Think Thank but…"

"I think I would have to agree with your friend Winter, avoiding a fight would be the better solution" the general commented as Winter nodded "Then that's what we will do then… sir"

Six grinned "Great now the only problem would be… where to get everything to build it" Ironwood snorted "I think we might have some spare metal pieces here and there, but a more suitable place would be a warehouse near Atlas so that we might have full control" the general paced a bit "But because Ozpin is here and I happen to have my hands slightly full at the moment with other matters it would be best if this situation is handled by both of us. I will request a small building on the outskirts of the city, can I count on you Winter to supervice this operation"

Winter nodded quickly "Certainly sir!"

"Then that's everything I wanted from you for now, I have another meeting soon so if you would excuse me" Ironwood said as he turned to look at the city below. Once he was sure that the door was closed and that both of his guest where out he turned to a secure communication link and began to type "Alien sorted, Queen is priority again" that Courier did not seem like he had any ill intentions and he trusted Winter as much as he could trust his subordinates, he had a duty. And the immediate threat was far more important than anything from that destroyed world.

Charity and aid could be given but he would prefer if that alien did not return.

"Ruby! Stop running so much we are supposed to be on a secret mission!" Weiss half yelled half whispered as she reached out and pulled Ruby by the ear, the youn leader yelped as she tried to recover her footing.

Blake simply snorted at the comment "I thought that the Headmaster said to be discreet not that it was a secret mission" Weiss huffed as she turned away from her team "He… he was speaking in code! And regardless this is an important mission so keep quiet"

"I am not going to lie Weiss-cream I am not moving around shadows like you wanted it looks even more suspicious and besides this is almost like a day off you know. we get to walk Vale for abit and head to this side of town I have never been in and… there is almost no one around here you know" Yang commented as she gestured to the place.

Weiss opened her mouth but closed it as she looked around. It was true, few people lived here it was mostly grassy fields and what looked like to be some farms. "I…"

Ruby pat her friend on her back "Its ok to be wrong Weiss" the white haired girl glared hard at her making the younger girl remove her hand as she covered her smile with her hood.

When they got to the place Yang was the one that knocked on the large shed "Hello anyone home" the door imidietly opened as Winter greeted them "Ah I am glad that headmaster Ozpin sent you Weiss come in I need your help sorting things out"

"Sister?! What are you wearing?!" Weiss said as she blushed and covered her eyes. Winter looked down at her shirt "Well it is a little tight I guess but you cannot expect me to use my real clothes to work on this thing, so I bought something that I would not mind if it was ruined"

Yang blinked as she had to reboot for a bit "I think I just saw heaven man"

Ruby zipped past them as she stared in awe at the large machine "This is awesome! What are you guys building?" a loud bang reached their ears as another piece fell into place. Six dropped from the floor as he let out a sigh "The thingy majiggy is on the other thingy majiggy. What's next" Yang turned to Blake with a small smile "I think I saw heaven twice"

Blake rolled her eyes "Stop staring just because he is shirtless"

Six noticed the team and wave happily at them "Oh hey! What are you girls doing here?" Winter placed the small chip on the table "They brought one of the missing pieces now we just need to load the information from our PipBoys to this and we should be able to begin testing"

"Finally, it's been pain to get this thing going" Six turned to Weiss as she still had her eyes covered "Something wrong little white?"

"PUT ON A SHIRT!" Weiss yelled as Yang quickly came into view and did an X with her arms "No don't listen to her"

Winter snorted at the small interaction "Teenagers" Six chuckled at the antics "It's hot as hell here. Not as much as the Mojave but welding this bastard together is more taxing than expected" Six moved as he looked as if something was off on the teleporter. "Winter about the power…"

"Yes, I am aware. Generators have been procured and are on their way not quite as powerful as Hoover dam itself but they should be able to make a one way trip to Vegas" Winter put the list down as she went to pick up a tool "Weiss are keeping you from your activities?"

Weiss shook her head as she avoided looking at the Courier "N-no, our abs -I MEAN our absence has been made known to our professors and we basically have the day off"

"Fantastic, then come help me over here. The rest of your team is welcome to join if they desire but I do not blame them if they don't want to participate" Ruby quickly nodded as she moved towards one of the tools "Team RWBY is happy to help on whatever this is"

Six grabbed a large piece of metal and began to put it where it belonged on the map "I swear to God first thing I bring with me is going to be a bunch of protectrons once I deal with all that bullshit"

"Protect-what?" Yang asked as she handed him a wrench "They are this robots that are used for everything, building, security hell even mining I saw some back in California"

Blake tilted her head at the comment "Is this California your home?" Six smiled "I don't know and I prefer not to know" he said with a wink, Blake stared at the courier with a bit of curiosity a large scar ran across his pine and one of his chest. Time seemed to fly as the group worked on the teleported only interrupted when the generators arrived.

"It's finished" Winter commented as she wiped the sweat off her brow and smiled at the teleporter "Easier to do when you only have to follow a manual. The brains most have calculated even the number of bolts needed on this thing to work"

Ruby and the rest of her team celebrated at the successful operation even if they did not fully understand what was going on, Blake leaned on Yang as she relaxed "Tired kitty cat?" Blake shrugged "It wasn't that taxing but…" Blake's eyes narrowed as she stood up "Something is wrong"

Someone kicked the door open as members of the White Fang stormed the place "Hands where we can see them anyone moves and"*BLAM* the man shot at Six piercing his stomach blood poured out as he groaned and fell to his knees "we do that"

Winter narrowed her eyes as she looked at team RWBY, unarmed. Not an ideal situation "What is that thing?" the guard said as he pointed at the machine "Does it matter?" Winter asked making the white fang member point his weapon at her forehead "Yes dammit it does! Do you think I wanna be here… fuck you and that stupid Torchwick just tell me what the fuck that thing is!"

Blake gritted her teeth, Ruby put a hand on her shoulder and told her to wait "Is a teleporter"

"Right and how do you start it?" Winter was about to say no but the thig moved his weapon towards Weiss and fired making her aura sparkle "Next one might break her, you willing to take that risk"

Winter was about to unleash her glyphs when she heard Six mutter to her "Do it" Winter let out a sigh and started the machine, bright lights flashed before their eyes as almost everyone had to cover their eyes from the lights. Six jumped towards them and grabbed the one who had shot Weiss by the neck "Your bullets don't hurt" he squeezed with all his might shattering the aura and then applied even more pressure. The white fang thugs stared in horror as Six ripped out the head of their friend with one hand.

"Who is next?"

All hell broke loose as Winter, team RWBY and Six fought against their armed opponents. Winter using her sembalcnce to either pin them or outright freeze them, with her speed and agility tripped them or distracted them enough so that the rest of her team could take them out.

Six punched another man and then stomped on the head splattering it "HOLY FUCK! Everyone pushed them into the-" Witer stopped his orders as she retrieved her weapon and fired a plasma shot at his stomach melting though him. Team RWBY looked at them slightly perturbed by the fight they where killing people.

"Weiss get behind me, Six get back here!" the courier wiped off some blood as he moved towards the group "Not many left I can maybe get them to…"-"Nobody move or I will blow this place up!" the last two white fang came into view as one of them held a massive RPG on hi shand Ruby winced "That's an Atlas military grade bomb"

"What are you doing man are you crazy?! That shit will kill us too!"

Six cursed slightly "Can that thing break you aura?" Winter nodded slowly as she grabbed Yang and Blake's hand and began to move towards the portal. Six gritted his teeth and placed a hand on the shoulders of the other two "I'M GOING TO FUCKING DO IT!" he yelled as he pulled the trigger. Ruby felt herself being yanked into the unknown as her entire world changed in the blink of an eye.

"Paladin it is good to see you again" Maxson said as his he watched the man enter the ship to his surprise the paladin was not wearing power armor or anything of the sort. But then again The Sole Survivor was daring if nothing else.

Nate nodded at Maxson "I got here as soon as I could. Raiders slowed me down but I think that is not surprising"

"Indeed, with the destruction of the institute the biggest monster of the commonwealth has been destroyed and people can walk without their presence on the back of their mind. That is a double edged sword, seems like every gang has decided to crawl from their pitiful hideouts and try to become the next big thing" Maxson handed him a small holotape.

Nate studied it "And this is?"

"Instructions paladin, once again something that should not be played with is on the hands of the wrong people, near the birthplace of the brotherhood the ancient city of Vegas is working to destroy the world again. Refugees from the dessert came to us for aid, someone there is doing the devils work a man more machine than man no better than a synth"

Nate nodded as he placed the information on his PipBoy "Do we have the fuel to make a trip that far into the wasteland?"

"Negative, after our war with the Insitute our resources have greatly diminished and what's worse is that now we have two regions that need our attention, the Capital Wasteland's secrets are yet to be fully opened and the Commonwealth is in dire need of both us and the Minute-men, this raiders are becoming bolder every single day"

Nate let out a sigh as he swallowed his guilt "Right, so tell me this then. What do we do about this new threat?" the elder pointed at the holotape "I got in contact with multiple chapters of the Brotherhood, they have offered to escort you through the Wasteland starting with The Capital Wasteland, I won't lie even with all his… peculiar views Elder Lyons made a fine job keeping key positions safe, so traveling through there won't be much trouble. The rest of the Wasteland that's another story… look if you refuse this mission I completely understand I can send someone else but"-"I'll do it"

Maxson raised an eyebrow "Wont the minutemen need you?"

"They have many leaders now, people I trust that will do good. I will see this job done and maybe even see what has become of the country I fought for" Nate commented as he looked down at the mess that was the commonwealth. It hurt his soul to see his city like this but it was far better to see this than Alaska just the name made him shudder.

Maxson did not notice this so he simply nodded "Then I will have your transport ready right away. The Capital Wasteland is maybe one of the most heavily irradiated places on the world every single nuke that detonated there still has some effect over the land, things used to be worse there but it changed when she arrived and helped the brotherhood"

Nate hummed "She?"

"Yes, referred to as the Lone Wandered by the scribes. I even met her once, barely older than eighteen I think but that doesn't matter now, she left and the brotherhood will forever remember her service to us" Maxson said with a faraway look on his face. Nate let the man get lost in remembrance as he installed the holotape into his PipBoy.

It was a hell of a long walk but it made him feel slight comfort to know that he would not be alone all the time, as much as he enjoyed hi ssolitude he needed people to talk to from now and then "OI! Where is he?! Where is that selfish piece of shit!"

Maxson rolled his eyes "Seems like your… friends have managed to infiltrate our ship. Find me once you have got rid of them" the elder said as he walked back to his usual spot. Nate on the other hand had to suppress a smile. Waling to the bridge he saw an amusing scene a fiery red head was glaring at a fully armored Brotherhood knight while a timid scientis hid behind said red-head.

"Please Madame Cait you must…"-"I wont reconsider shit, where is Nate?" seeing that things would get ugly if he did not step in Nate walked down the stairs.

Cait dropped her fighting stance and smiled at the man while Curie almost skipped over to him happily wrapping him in a hug "Oh it is so good to see you again monsieur… I have missed you" Nate played with her hair as he smiled "So did I" seeing that Cait was close he also pulled her into the hug "Oi, this is not… well it is quite nice" the redhead leaned her head for a moment against his chest but quickly pulled away when she remembered that she was pissed at him.

"No wait, you're an asshole! Where have you been?! You disappeared for weeks no one has seen you and what do we catch wind of? This blue wearing pajama fuck is on his waaay to the brotherhood, did you not even thin once to come see us?"

Nate let go of them and nodded "I did, but this took priority. Something is happening and I need to make a trip to Vegas"

"What the fuck is a Vegas?" Cait asked as Curie gasped "But that is on the other side of the country is it not?" Nate nodded "Yes but I don't mind. I need to clear my head anyways, after Shaun I… I feel a little lost"

Cait and Curie exchanged a brief glance "Want us to…"-"No, stay here. I need you to be my eyes and ears while I am gone, I think I will be back before Winter but I will try to keep weekly communication" Cait frowned at that but let out a sigh "Fine, if that's what you want then I won't fight ya. But please PLEASE remember that we are here ok?"

"Oui! It made me quite sad not to be by your side" Curie added with a small blush Cait nodded quickly with a large smile "Yeah what she said! But I mean it more" Nate chuckled a little "Don't worry, when I get back I am sure that I will have more free time… for both of you I promise"

Nate then let out a sigh and turned his back towards them "Please tell the others that I will be back soon. See you girls" as he walked away his soul desperately cried out to him to finally let go of his fears and just hold on to them. To make everything right, to clear things up and finally move on from Nora but as he closed his eyes he could only see war and in that war there was one word that rang in his ears.

Responsibility.

He was the last one, the last one alive that could hold the line.

A/N: Hello there! Back from my small break, it feel good to write for this story specially Six who is fun to compare to his past self. As for the schedule I think I will write another chapter for the prequel next because we finally leave the vault and head out to California and then this story, I got quite the surprise in store. Thank you for reading, see you soon!