Sandstorm Over Remnant

Checkmate

Failure.

Across the centuries Salem had not known failure, every step she took, every piece that she moved had a purpose and she had always gotten what she wanted. Few setbacks for sure the world was nothing if unpredictable and ever evolving, but never something that dammed the grand picture, her mission to challenge the very gods themselves had never once being close to being stopped.

As she looked across the ruins of her castle, her children dying to the invisible killer as across her kingdom nuclear hellfire reigned down and the very finger of god itself could be seen above the clouds ready to fire at her again after destroying her home to rubble something primal surged from her insides, an emotion she had not felt in centuries.

"Hehe… HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Salem laughed, tears fell down her cheeks as she could not control the amusement that emanated from her very soul. She wiped the tears away with her sharp nails and for the first time in centuries she let out a satisfied sigh as an amused smirk firmly rested on her cheek. The rubble that had once been her castle and the smoke coming from the approaching enemy would mean the end for most, but for her? This was nothing more than a setback, a mere diversion from the norm and she had to say this was the most entertained she had been in a long time. Ozpin and his lackeys had tried sure, but they lacked the power for this and she had no doubt that this was the work of something otherworldly something that she did not understand yet…

They had opened the gate to something that they should not have, something that messed with their reality and the rules that the gods had written down so long ago. And that excited her, she felt radiation lap against her skin as it tried to eat her but to no avail, like all the tools of man this was just something else that would eventually be turned against them. Salem looked as the smoke cleared and she could see her new enemy.

She could see him now, riding so proudly into battle on his metallic horse. He thought himself death surrounded by his metal locust but the boy had not met anything like her before looking around she spotted how her throne was intact, smiling to herself she walked with grace towards her seat and waited. Salem crossed her legs as she rested her head against her hand, one of her Grimm approached her as it died ready to protect his mistress.

Salem shook her head and slit the throat of the dying beast "No need for that my dear" she could faintly see the invisible killer dance around her fingertips as she smiled at all the endless possibilities "Rest now, soon you shall return to this world more powerful than ever but for now…" she looked up as the man-made machine landed near her.

The old witch smiled "I have a guest to entertain"

New Beacon Academy, sometime earlier:

"… something greater than the bear and the bull… you found it not in our home… but on the stars" Ulysses watched from the window of New Beacon as Six and Yes Man planned the attack on the Grimm-Lands. "Something that can give us hope, something that can make us become so much more, but it must be defended. I must save it from these beasts" the other Courier replied.

Six barely looked up from the screen as he poured everything of himself into the planning and the maneuvering of units "You are wounded… a clear mind is needed to win a war…" Ulysses commented as a simple observation.

"I was almost crazy and dying when we fought" Six looked up with a grin "And I remember wining"-"Crazy yes… but not heartbroken… two different types of madness" Ulysses said without turning away from the window as he watched this nation continue onwards even after the grim attack on their city. Clicking his tongue Six returned to the screen as he tried to make sure they had enough bullheads to mobilize an entire invading force… but if needed he could just take the ones that the Vale Council had left around after they had quietly fled from the kingdom.

Cowards.

They failed to see that once a kingdom fell there would be a domino effect, one by one they would all fall and not even the mighty Atlas would be able to fight off the entire world and then… silence, a world reduced to nothing. And there would not be any haven from that.

"There is a call from General Ironwood coming in" Yes-Man said not caring enough to stop his strategizing, the AI just sent it to his screen to let him deal with the no doubt irate general. "… sure, let's get this out of the way" Six muttered as the machine clicked a bit and in no time the scowling face of the general appeared.

There was a pause as both men looked at one another but Ironwood broke their staring contest as he looked to the paper on his hand "Concealment of a super-weapon, illegal smuggling of nuclear devices INTO MY PLANET and if Winter is to be believed… you are going to war with something you don't understand. Ozpin gave his life… my friend and mentor… his own life Six to keep the world safe and ignorant of what is happening, because if the people knew mass panic would ensue. This is not a request; I am done being nice. Return to your planet, as an offer of goodwill we will keep trade with Earth but you are not to set foot on Remnant ever again"

Six nodded "Oh I hear ya, don't mean I will obey. Vale is dead, people might not realize it but it fell the moment Ozpin and Beacon fell. I merely used its corpse like a puppet to make the people believe that there is a chance, that things won't fail because if Vale fails all of you are next and you know it… don't you General?"

Ironwood narrowed his eyes at him.

"You have no possible way of knowing that"-"Everything is a ripple. Vale was only the first strike in the water and no one did anything to stop it… so I will, I will have to decline your request. No worries, this is not a decision enforced by RobCo I am doing this alone"

There was silence as the two glared at one another "Then you are just a criminal that needs to be put down"-'"See you around Ironwood, next time we meet I will be hailed as the hero of your little ball of dust" slamming his fist down on the call button Six's red eye glowed as everything had been prepared.

Lanius strolled in as he watched the war table with mild interest "My troops are eager to spill blood, when do we strike"

"Now" Cinder sat next Six as he prepared Archimedes "I got footage of HER castle, its crawling with Grimm" the sky glowed as the machine prepared to fire once more, and this time at maximum capacity. The black-haired girl grinned as she leaned against the taller man.

Six raised an eyebrow at the action as she mumbled into his ear "Intoxicating, right?"

"What?"-"The feeling that you are in control, that you have the power to kill with the simple press of a button. Makes me wonder if the relics are like this" Six made a mental note to ask what the relics were and to also check where the sudden affection from her came from.

Turning to the screen that housed Yes Man, Six nodded at him as he reached for the key on his pocket "Prepare the nuclear missiles, they strike after the laser" twenty red dots appeared all over the Grimmlands and one more that would hit the castle shortly after the first barrage, set to destroy whatever the laser had not managed to kill. There was no need for a grand speech, no need for him to justify what he was going to do activating the key and pressing the button only took about a minute and yet he could feel his shoulders sagging under the weight of his actions.

Silence followed as Ulysses watched the skies "… here it comes…" a massive shockwave shook the school as Archimedes fired at maximum capacity illuminating the sky as New Beacon trembled as the nuclear arsenal was launched.

The drone shook as the castle exploded; the laser burned everything to the ground as the Grimm melted to their bone and the dark cloud of their death began to cloud the sky and blot out the sun. "Confirmed strike across the entire continent, every part will be covered in radiation soon. You have a less than an hour to get to that castle" Yes Man communicated as Six began to mobilize his troops.

"Lanius your men will guard the border of Vale, repeal any creature that tries to cross the border. My Robots will head to Vacuo and do the same" Lanius nodded as he motioned for his men to follow him into the flying machines.

Six handed him a brand-new machine gun "Better take care of them, you get to keep them after this war" Lanius tossed the weapon to one of the legionaries "I have no need for this weapon, I will crush the beasts with my sword"

Present time, Grimmlands:

"Approaching target" Six faintly heard one of the assaultrons say as the vertibird landed near ground zero of the laser strike, taking the most powerful weapons at hand Six grinned as the Fat Man on his arm shone eerily under the red light of this land, the power of Atom ready to reduce anything that still lived to radioactive dust.

If needed he could just pump it full of lead with the Riot Shotgun or beat it to a pulp with the super sledge on his back.

Six signaled another bullhead to land near him, if all went according to plan this was just overkill but he could never be too sure when it came to dealing with things that he did not understand… but everything died, of that he was sure "Enemy spotted, be ready to engage. Courier Six moving in" the short announcement echoed in the empty valley as Six spotted a funny looking chair as a massive woman grinned at him.

"Welcome" her voice was elegant, ancient, alien… Six felt his blood run cold and his limbs refused to obey, his determined walk was brought to an abrupt halt under the cold eyes of the monster.

Salem did not move an inch as she observed the man before her, she breathed in his scent and chuckled "Barely human, are you? Is that why they sent you tin man? Do they think that a metal abomination can beat me after oh so many years?" Six swallowed as he kept his fingers on the trigger of the Fat-Man.

"It has been working" was the short response he provided, Salem waived her hand as she looked at her ruined kingdom "Grimm don't die, I don't die. All of this has only been a minor setback"

Six snorted "Says the woman standing in her ruined castle" Salem nodded "I guess to mortals this does look like a victory… but I spent some time building this place, so I am a bit annoyed at having to rebuild it all" standing up from her throne Six aimed with the Fat-Man as Salem simply shook her head.

"So far from home, so very confused and oh so very weak"

Six blinked as Salem disappeared and the cackling could be heard all around the ruins "Lost target, scanning" One of his robot companions said as Six reached into his pocket as he prepared the button that would activate his trap. Six noticed something move into the corner of his eye as he jumped and activated V.A.T.S to aim the shot with the Riot Shotgun.

To his horror Salem strolled next to him even on slowed time her red eyes never leaving his, aware that he was watching her. With a slap from one of her tentacles, Six felt his Riot Gear be torn apart as he was flung back and slammed against one of the rocks. Moving quickly, he shot Salem who took the blast to the face instead of evading it with her superior speed. The shot seemed to bounce off her as she grinned at him, the light around her seeming to be sucked in and then snuffed out by her presence alone, as her long shadow fell over him "And now that that didn't work, what else do you have up your sleeve?"

Six pressed the button as an army of assaultrons jumped from the shadows firing lasers at the enemy, who created a large tentacle that crushed the metal constructs to bits as she never took her eyes off the courier, before Salem could comment the second bullhead landed on top of her as the red cloud exploded all around them.

"A LITTLE GIFT FROM THE SIERRA MADRE YOU BITCH!" Six yelled as he ran away and prepared the fat-man. Salem crushed the head of an assaultron between her fingers as she breathed in the toxin. It was addictive, it reeked of death and rust. It burnt the lungs of her children, but to her this was the sweetest perfume she could ever get.

It was the smell of death "This… this I can use" she heard the trigger be pulled as across the skies the power of atom descended towards her "YES MAN! Prepare Archimedes now! FULL POWER!" Six pulled out the toy pistol and aimed "And don't stop firing until I say so" the Fat-Man exploded as the ground shook as his Geiger counter ticked standing so close to the blast.

The cloud, an atom bomb, radiation and laser weaponry of the highest caliber shot from the most advanced robots his world had to offer… it had to be enough right?

She had to be death, RIGTH?!

"Did you expect me to cry out? Did you expect me to feel pain? I don't feel pain child, all I feel… is rage" she was not affected, the witch still lived. Taking a short step towards him Salem glared as Six stumbled back pressing the button on the weapon. Her veins glowed green as she assimilated the nuclear energy around her, her hand grotesquely being reshaped into a large knife as black ooze poured to the ground, burning it "You have outlived the amusement you provide, be a good alien and die"

From the skies a horrible sound deafened whatever living thing that remained on the area as the red clouds above where burnt. Archimedes split the sky as it landed with all its might atop Salem, Courier Six keeping his finger on the trigger as the ground gave way reduced to cinders and melting into a dark pit. Six fell back as his ears rang and he could barely see, desperately trying to get to his feet the courier heard as some of the bits and pieces of his armor fell to the ground.

Stimpacks were quickly injected. Med-X, Buffout and even some mentats all of them downed with Whiskey as the courier managed to look around. The red cloud was gone, whatever remained of the castle had been destroyed and all the assaultrons destroyed, looking up Six looked at the surrounding areas and frowned "Got to get out of here" a small glimpse of gold made him stop in his tracks, mouth agape Six stared as the throne stood in the middle of the crater, untouched by everything. Not a smidge, not a dent and dark chuckle emanated from the massive hole in the ground. Six gripped his shotgun as he carefully approached the edge, he could not see the bottom. Did it stretch for miles down there?

"Tell me something mortal" her voice echoed across the large chasm as dark tendril began to snake towards the top "Why have you not been swarmed by all my children? Why do my beasts still roam the kingdoms? All the alphas, the elders, the mutants. Species uncountable still roam the world and they shall keep doing so forevermore. I am ETERNAL and I will not stop until everyone last human and faunus is dead and even the very gods bow to me… for what they did to me so long ago"

Six felt one of the large tentacles wrap around his neck as it brough him closer to the darkness bellow "It will happen, you cannot stop it. If not today in a hundred years, a thousand. To me it does not matter. All you have done is given me new tools to make them all suffer and for that you are to be rewarded"

Six was tossed to the side as the tentacle glowed green, the Geiger counter on his arm ticked and then it split creating another one that turned red just like the cloud from the Sierra Madre "You get time, time is nothing to me but everything to you. But how much will I give them? A year? A century? Run along now little tin can man and I recommend that you don't look back"

The tentacles retreated into the dark the green glow of radiation fading slowly but never disappearing, Six looked at the throne and then back at the darkness form where the tentacles had come from and there he saw it, a pair of red eyes burning into his very soul.

He had gotten too close to the abyss and now it was looking back at him. Something primal overtook him, something that he could not control. They say that one of the oldest emotions is fear and that the oldest fear is the fear of the unknown.

Six ran away.

As fast as his legs could carry him Six jumped into the vertibird he had arrived so full of confidence and looked at the pilot "New Beacon, NOW!" Six steadied his breathing as he brought his hand to his face "Fuck…FUCK!" Slamming his fist into the metal denting it a bit, Six felt the crushing weight of his defeat as he slumped into the floor. He had given her tools to hurt humanity more, it did not matter to her. She could come back again and again and again, always increasing the threat she represented and now Remnant was doomed… maybe not now, maybe not in a thousand years.

But all the same the end was coming and he was not sure that he could stop it… if he ever had a chance to stop it. Was this planet truly doomed? What was Ozpin's plan to stop her? Did he even have any?!

"What the hell even is she?!" Six muttered to himself as a black crow flew next to the vertibird. The bird flew away as it watched the vertibird grow smaller and smaller until it faded in the red sky. The bird landed near a forest, turning into a man with black hair "Jimmy… you're not going to believe this. I think the Courier managed to bring down the Queen. No sign of her, Grimm are retreating into the forests in droves… the laser? Yeah worse than we thought and the large missiles that we spotted are even worse. They have leveled mountains and shattered the entire continent, there's also this cloud that he used but… never mind that now. We need to talk, Grimm just became the least of our problems"

Qrow let out a sigh as he checked to see if Ruby had gotten his message, Glynda had replied but she did not seem all that interested in replying. "Come on Red… you might be in the dragons' nest right now and the beast is heading back with a pile of gold"

A/N: How do you beat death? You don't would be the short answer. You delay it would be the longer one, Courier Six has failed but bought time for Remnant. In the show I always wondered what the answer to the Salem problem would be, other than you know... launching her into space. I have read many a crossovers were they either make her invincible but relents or she gets killed by a single bullet. So instead I wanted to make something that went along with the themes of the story and the sources it was inspired by and also give a somewhat realistic example of a nuclear war. No epic battle, no monologues, just the press of a cold button and crossing your fingers while you try to safeguard what is yours.

I hope you liked this chapter and thank you for your support, I always read your comments and keep an eye on my DMs (even if now they are flooded with bots lol). Stay safe and see you soon!