This is gonna be hard for me to write.. Ooough
~~~~~ MINDUSTRIAL WAR ~~~~~
"OOH LOOK AT THEEMM!!" Ruby screams out ecstatically, zooming over to many of the defenses that tower over the little rose, the size only serving to excite Ruby even more
"THIS ONE HAS SEVERAL BARRELS, THIS ONE HAS INSANE LOOKS AND AAAAAAHHH!"
"Calm down Ruby, geez you're geeking out too loud.."
"BUT.. BUT.. GUNS!"
"Yeah yeah I know" She rolls her eyes before turning to Professor Oobleck who is currently examining a factory of sorts, he stares at the lines of conveyor conveyor as it all fed piles of sand and a chunk of lead in the bridge conveyor and into the schematic, where it began to made various sounds before pumping out what looks like a slab of barely-transparent glass.
"Interesting..."
"H-hey.. Professor?"
Yang asks about what to do, Professor says to NOT TO ATTACK the sharded or provoke it
"It's DOCTOR to you missy!"
"Ah- Doctor Oobleck? So.." She corrects herself, aiming to speak to him about something "So what is our course of plan from now on?"
"Well FIRST! we DO NOT ATTACK them or provoke them in that matter, all around you are various weapons ready to fire on us in about a matter of time!" He exclaims, spreading his arms around so as to show the amount of defenses that the Sharded has. "And second.. We wait for our pickup to arrive!"
And Yang stood silent for a while
"...Eh, sounds good to me"
Meanwhile on Weiss' side, she grumbles as she sat on a cobble of rocks while Blake swung her Gambol Shroud from side to side. The former grumbling until..
"AUGH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" She stabs her weapon to the ground "Seriously! What's up with this base and how did it even pop up! With all the Grimm around, surely it would've been run over by now since it's in broad daylight but.. But HOW!"
"Yeah, suspicious too" Blake simply comments
"And aside from that, this is the same FACTION that took down the Atlesian Fleet!? They attacked my home kingdom but they showed mercy to us! I don't get it.. UGH!"
And Blake didn't even comment on that one, only staying silent as it stared at a Duo turret that rotated to the side to aim at something.. Or rather someone.
It didn't shoot anything.
[Printing technology btw]
"AH!" Weiss jumps at the mere appearance of the Sharded ship, the floating fighter-constructor would be just as big as a Bullhead(?). Hence Weiss' sudden shout of surprise.
Blake would take notice of the now different form of the Core Ship, the latter taking on a more Jet-like look with two barrels and such. For the Sharded, its a Gamma-class Core Ship.
[I used this thing called printing to pretty much build all this stuff here, had to use resources in order to do so]
"...What's with the new look?" Blake asks instead
[I upgraded the core, it's a nucleus now]
[Not that you get it ofc sorry]
"I-" Weiss spoke up, but instead the Sharded AI interrupts her instead. Aiming to comment about her earlier words that it had heard not long ago.
[In my defense, i have no idea about the world of this place, infact I don't even have most of it mapped out. So like when I saw the fleet..]
Blake and Weiss took the time to read the sentence that was typed out in front of them, the AI taking its precious time to type even more
[It reminded me of my old enemy, I kinda had to fight back instead because I thought it would attack me with all that ships and stuff]
"W-wait what?" Weiss had to do a double take "So it was because you thought it was gonna attack you!? Don't you-"
Weiss was about to say something back but Oobleck stops her just in time.
"Weiss!" Oobleck interrupted
"WHAT!?"
"I think thats enough interrogation already! They're accomodating this place for us if you don't get what I mean!" In the middle of the conversation, the ship would finally fly away much to the chagrin of Weiss
"I- ugh!" She sighs "Whatever, it's not like I was irritated about the attack on our fleet.."
"No no I can get it" Blake instead butts in "Imagine this, you're a random nation in the middle of nowhere and you get a visit in the form of a massive army, how do you respond?"
"..." She tried to respond, but all she got in her head was.. pretty much nothing, so instead she sighed and waved off Blake's imaginary scenario. The cat faunus shrugging at her as a result.
...
As the AI was about take a look at the condition of one of its factories, a ping would notify the AI, prompting it to take a look at it's minimap.
And surely enough, there's a neutral grey dot that's approaching the base, one that's similar to the other grey dot that arrived before Team RWBY had appeared underground. With the same energy signature and all that tech stuff too.
If it's carrying a person like Team RWBY, surely they can meet them too right? It began to approach the oncoming Bullhead..
~~~~~ MINDUSTRIAL WAR ~~~~~
The Bullhead would finally land on a clearing in the now desolated city, a important figure would step down from it with a signature cane on one hand and a recognizable white hair.
Ozpin. The headmaster of the Academy, as of right now he had decided to hop onto the bullhead personally in order to meet the unknown faction head on and, ultimately, negotiate with them so as to not cause a global wide panic and war with Atlas as a whole.
"Impressive architecture.." He comments on the appearance of the purple-colored walls, scrutinizing its looks and the turrets that appear to tower over it. Menacing, but an effective way to deter any invaders, no wonder the fleet had to retreat judging by the amount of firepower they could have on their side. "But I'd rather not have too much defenses on this side in particular.. Perhaps they were fending off the Grimm I suppose.."
They were lucky the bases' defenses had not fired on them, or perhaps they chose not to fire onto them? Whether it chose not to or it's coincidental, they were incredibly lucky.
'Being alone was definitely the right call' Ozpin thought to himself
A ship from the distance would be seen just approaching Ozpin and the Bullhead, as Ozpin notices it, he begins to fix himself from his curent overall look up to his sleeves and such.
The ship would then stop not far from Ozpin, the AI typing something on it's console before it finally sends out a message to Ozpin who waited just in front of their base
[hello?]
"Ah" Ozpin notices, clearing his throat in preparation for his talk "Greetings, the name's Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I come here to.. talk specifically for negotiations aaand.." He leans to the side, eyeing the base
"Do you have Team RWBY and Professor Oobleck on your side too? We've come here to also pick them up as well"
[you mean these people atvthe back? Yeah they're here, I just accomodated them] The AI responded, before flying back, ignoring the mistaken typo in it's holographic message
"Oh- wait- oh nevermind.." He shrugged and sighed, waiting for the ship to come back, he supposes that the person on the ship is notifying the team and the professor that Ozpin is here.
And he waited...
The Ship then finally came back, much to the delight of Ozpin.
[Sorry, had to tell]
[tell team ruby to come here and say youre here]
"It's Team RWBY with a W at the end mister...?" He trails off at the end, expecting a response
[the Sharded, and weird name for a team]
"Peculiar name..." He supposes its the name for their faction, the Sharded huh? I wonder whats the purpose of that name? He wonders in his mind
"Anyway once we pick RWBY up, we can go back to Vale for negotiations.. Well once the fighting at the breach dies down of course" He says
[Fighting at the what?]
"Your handiwork, Oobleck says that you've scared them off too early. The huntsmen and the atlesian fleet are currently dealing and detaining White Fang prisoners right now" He summarizes "Though again, you did a great job keeping the Grimm at bay."
[Oh] Aside from the people in masks which Ozpin calls them the White Fang, was the Grimm part talking about the...
[Also if you're talking about these weird black monsters, they're still attacking down there, it's just that they're pretty much down to little numbers, the snake one was hard to fight]
"Well we won't have to worry about the Grimm at the breach now I suppose. Anyway.."
Ruby dashes to ozpin explaining the details of the base defenses, ozpin is creeped out by how well defended it is.
Ruby suddenly appears beside Ozpin, eyes twinkling with mouth smiling
"Oh, hello Ruby! I see you've enjoyed this tour of.. yours..?"
She inhales..
"HEADMASTER OZPIN! THEYHAVEGIANTGUNSTHESIZEOFELEPHANTSTHEYALSOHAVEMISSILETURRETSTHEYVEEVENGOTFACTORIESTHATENDLESSLYSUPPLYTHESEDEFENSESWITHAMMOIMGONNADETAILYOUABOUTHOWINSANETHEYALLLOOKWELLYOUSEETHESETURRETSHAVECALIBERSTHE-"
Ozpin was starting to get concerned that day..
...
"Uughhhh" Ruby slumped over Yang as she sobbed silently from the withdrawal that she was suffering from having to leave the magnificent sharded base "They had big guns.."
"Yes Ruuby they had biiig guns.." Yang tried to consolidate her
"And they had BIGGER guns.. Boo hoo.." She raised her arms at the highlight of the word 'BIGGER' before they slumped again on Yang, prompting her to pat the crying half-sister on the back
"Welp! That went well.. I think" Yang promptly said, still patting on Ruby's back
"Thank Oum our bullhead came here, and with it came Professor Ozpin! What was the purpose of your visit again?" Weiss had to be curious about it.
"Negotiation offering" Ozpin simply said "Ironwood potentially soured our future relations with them so I decided a single ship containing me would do.. as to not provoke them of course.." He cleared his throat
"Ooooohh.." Weiss slowly backed into her seat.
Meanwhile.. Outside the Bullhead, the Sharded Gamma Ship would follow the bullhead from behind, Ozpin told them to follow earlier for negotiations after all..
The AI would check its building tab every now and then, because back then a core ship couldn't leave the restraints of the sector until now with the help of console.
And even then, it only experienced how it felt without a core when it lost it several times during their incursions within other harsh sectors against the Crux. The core ship crashing to the ground with the building tab uninteractable..
Instead, the Core Ship didn't crash this time. The building tab now displaying a " * " number of resources on each building in the list as usual when one loses their core..
This pretty much means the Core Ship can no longer build unless it's within a sector again.
[I can't build anymore] the AI typed out, moving the core ship infront of the Bullhead just for them to see
"Uhh, Professor Ozpin?" The pilot asks, turning towards Ozpin at the back while the others saw the holographic text.
They all turned to look at him, but instead of a response, all he would do was stare with obscured glasses.
He didn't comment on it.
~~~~~ MINDUSTRIAL WAR ~~~~~
"FINALLY we're back" Yang steps down from the bullhead as the rest of the Team steps down wordlessly with Ruby eyeing the Gamma Ship that tagged along the Bullhead.
It floated above the ground with no attempts at landing yet as if it had no plans of doing so
"Uh.. Ozpin? Aren't they gonna land or what?"
"That seems to be peculiar too" Oobleck would comment on it in particular "First, the part where they said they cannot build, and second.. This? Hm?"
"No need to look deeper into it Professor Oobleck, im sure that we can find our way to let their ship land so we can go inside for negotiations"
"It's Doctor! Oobleck thank you!" He corrected
[Wait what?]
[Youre saying i have to go inside?] The AI responded, confused
"Well of course, where else do we have to discuss negotiations with?" Ozpin says as he turned to look at Team RWBY, the team in particular already leaving the premise and back to Beacon where they'd talk to their friends about their experiences..
[.] The AI typed this one out instead
And later on, it typed out a message once more
[I don't think this ship can fit inside]
"Pardon me?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow, and so did Oobleck.
They awaited an answer..
[What im trying to say is that I don't have a body that small to fit through, and even then the only thing thats probably small enough is a Daivo and it'll like take a while for it to even send it here in the first place]
it typed out one massive response to Ozpin, so much infact that the holographic message in and itself is already being seen by spectators along the campus.
"..."
"...Ozpin does that remind you of..?"
Ozpin turned his head to Oobleck, before nodding and turning towards the ship, he had to ask a specific question "Are you.. by chance, an AI?"
[last one so far]
Well.. That answered their question..
...And the scenery is silent..
"...How about we negotiate by the cliff instead?" Ozpin suggests, breaking the silence "Surely it have enough space for your.. body to fly around in"
[sure]
"Well! I-I'll get back to my office then! See you all!" And Oobleck zoomed off back into the campus grounds.
"..." He turned back to the Gamma Ship as it eyed the trail of dust that Doctor Oobleck left behind. "I'll lead the way then, you can tag along.."
...
Ozpin had led the Gamma Ship to the cliffside by the pathway outside all while students from across the campus stared at the ship that flew outside the premises so as not to damage the infrastructure while it followed their school headmaster
Their walk had started to attract a few more spectators along the way until they finally reached the cliff, in this case only a few spectators remained to see what their headmaster and the ship was up to.
The Sharded AI would take a glance at Ozpin, noticing the weird small pad on his hand as he typed into it before he placed it away. The AI was curious but made no further response into it.
Once they made it onto the cliffside, the AI would see small gray pads on the ground with a particular two-axe symbol embedded on each of the pads. And each are aligned a way that faced the cliffside
"Well! Now were here, I've notified General Ironwood of your appearance so let's discuss a few things while we wait for him to appear" He brought his hand up to his.. Oh wait
"Aw? No coffee.. whatever" He shrugged
"Anyway.." He dusts off his clothes before adjusting it and clearing up his throat, that's a lot to go through.. "What are you really? And where did you come from? You've clearly shown yourself to not be from Atlas in some way judging by the appearance of your base in Mountain Glenn.."
He places his hand behind his back as he eyed the Gamma Ship infront of him "Go on, I'll wait for your response.."
And so it did respond
[Like i said before, im an AI, a remnant of something else that my database calls Derelict. That could be the reason why I call myself the Sharded? I don't really know much after all]
"Oh?"
[I mean, I was brought into existence, sent down to Serpulo and saw myself waging war against the Crux in the matter of a few minutes. Sure it was hectic but again I was given objectives before I was left alone to my own devices and fight the Crux.]
"The Crux?" He raised an eyebrow "Oh nevermind that i'll ask about that later. But care to elaborate?"
[Oh right]
[I came from Serpulo, a planet infested with spores, im an AI used to fighting against the Crux and reclaim Serpulo against them, I tried to launch a core into outer space but ended up here instead]
[sorry]
"..." That's.. "That definitely is a lot to take in, you say you were from another planet?.."
[Yeah, what's this planet anyway?]
"Well, guess we managed to make first contact with extraterrestrials.. A mechanical one nevertheless" He nodded to himself, rubbing his chin. Yes yes they were definitely not alone in thie vast universe and the presence of the Sharded AI confirms it
"oh well, welcome to Remnant oh Sharded AI. This planet is rife with dangerous dark monsters called Grimm and the only civilization you can find is protected behind walls and natural barriers" He simply didn't sugarcoat it
[Ooh ok, strange]
"Alright, now onto the question of the Crux.. You said you were fighting it right? Well, would I like to know what they really are..?"
Before the Sharded would respond to the question with a holographic text, Ironwoof finally arrives, walking towards the cliff with a look so stern it could freeze someone with just a single stare.
It gave the Gamma Ship the same stern look as before, before looking back to Ozpin with a clearly annoyed look
"Ozpin.."
[Hi]
Ozpin says him to calm down but ironwood is still enraged, sharded ai says to no longer attack any fleets if thats possible, and ironwood feels insulted.
"Calm down Ironwood, we are in the middle of negotiations, after all you sent a fleet that they felt was necessary to fight back.."
"So what!? They are dangerous! They shot down our fleet!" He shot back
"Not that it helps that our visitor here is from the stars" He highlighted the fact that the Sharded itself was an extraterrestrial visitor "Doesn't help either that they came out of a war earlier.. So they're still wary about the fact that they could have invaders at their doorstep again"
"I- ah?" Ironwood couldn't respond to it, these were absurd claims coming from Ozpin. He eyed the Gamma Ship infront of them again
[Yeah, sorry about that, I felt threathened. No hard feelings]
"Well then, how about I suggest something?" Both the Gamma Ship and Ironwood turned to look at him, the latter giving him a more stern look
"What im suggesting is that both parties should not touch each other's airspace, Atlas should not touch anything the Sharded has and the Sharded should not violate Atlesian airspace, so long as there's peace?"
Ironwood would step back a bit as he eyed the Gamma Ship again
[Yeah sure, I can live with that]
He grits his teeth
"Ozpin I know you're looking for a peaceful solution to this problem but Atlas CAN'T share a border with this.. Warmongering.."
[hey]
"I'll elaborate it again, they're dangerous Ozpin, and you know how just by looking at my fleet's current condition!"
"Look Ironwood, I get that you're threathened by it, but we are currently in the middle of the Vytal Festival so waging a war right now with a spacefaring faction that has already faced a recent war will be detrimental to our efforts in bringing upon peace and unity to our people. Think about it Ironwood."
Ozpin sighs out again before walking towards Ironwood, leaning in "Besides that, remember that our adversaries may take advantage of the hostilities you're presenting to the Sharded as a whole."
"But..! Ugh" He finally shakes his head and steps back a few feet, folding his hands and giving the Gamma Ship a stern glance "Fine, you do what you can then"
"Well then" He turns to the Sharded AI inside the Gamma Ship with a visible smile "Mind explaining how many bases that you have right now? There's one on Solitas, but then you have one on Mountain Glenn.. Care to elaborate please?"
[I can launch cores to expand myself from place to place, the opponents i faced so far were these grimm that you talked about, other than that I only have three so far]
"Wait, you can expand anytime and anywhere?" Ironwood finally speaks up
[Only if my objective calls for it or if the sector is nearby, either way I need the planet scanned for that to happen, I only have a small scan of the map as of now since my core scans the surroundings]
Ironwood would then stay silent on the matter.
"Oh well, anyway now that the negotiation part is done.. How would you like to visit the Vytal Festival?" Ozpin would offer the Sharded AI
"W-what!?" Ironwood would be shockes by this "Ozpin! What are you-"
"Now now Ironwood before you get riled up again, keep in mind that this is still for peace, I intend to keep things nice and steady so the Sharded being at the Vytal Festival is the perfect chance to celebrate the peace and prosperity we have today" He says, before turning to the Gamma Ship "So would you?"
[Sure, not that I would know what it is..]
Ozpin turns to look at Ironwoood, but instead of seeing him there, he would see that spot empty, turning around to seee Ironwood walk away without a warning. He stops for a moment before speaking out
"I'll.. See myself out" And he finally leaves, passing by the many students that stared at the negotiations.
"..." And he turned towards the Gamma Ship "I'll talk to you about it, now care to stay some more?"
[okay]
"Alright" He nods "Now before we talk about the Vytal Festival, how about I talk about how we have a few students whose ears have been very nosy lately?" He slowly turned back to the small crowd.
They all stepped back immediately
"Oh well, off you all go.."
They immediately dispersed upon command, how nice..
"Well, I'll notify the others about your appearance soon, now how about I talk about it's history..."
And so they discussed about the Vytal Festival..
...they may have forgotten on discussing about the Crux
[Info]
When the Core of the Sharded is destroyed in a sector, the Core Ship itself actually still lives on. However it can no longer build as it's resources are now cut off.
Once it's core is destroyed the Crux pretty much decides whether or not something is destroyed, as the player can relaunch to that same core sector and pretty much just see some of their stuff still intact. But they'll still face the same attacks as before.
~~~
WHEW, FINALLY
I don't like typing out this sort of stuff anymore my brain hurts trying to brainstorm lmaaaaiooo
Oh well enjoy the chapter.