The last idea of this batch, I think. Maybe. Might not be anymore ideas for a while after this, or I might suddenly be shot with inspiration and write down another idea.
Who knows?
Soaring Through the Stars
(Inspired by Star Wars and Halo)
This story would be set in a completely alternate universe, where instead of Remnant being a single world, it is instead a star system, with a collection of solar systems within known as Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, and Vale.
In the recent past, the star system of Remnant was ruled by a ruthless empire known as the Dominion, one that drained many of the planets within the system of their natural resources, turning them into desolate wastelands, and producing a vast army of GRIMM wardroids to enforce their rule, stamping out on any opposition against their regime and desire to destroy all pre-existing culture within the various worlds of Remnant, and replace it with the cold, unflinching machine of their empire.
However, the Dominion would soon be ripped apart in a violent civil war known as the Colour Revolution, and in only a single year, the empire would completely collapse, and leave the system free to decide its own destiny.
That was over a hundred years ago.
Since then, the four systems have been locked in an uneasy peace. Tensions have been rising between the systems as various factions seek to scavenge and claim as much of the power of the Imperium as they can, with various groups locked in cold wars and arms races as space pirates and rogue hordes of Grimm wardroids continue to harass the spacelanes and disrupt shipping between the solar systems, only leading to even more tension than before, especially between the naturalborn humans and the artificially created Faunus species, bred by the Dominion as expendable slave labour, now freed from their slavery and scattered across the Remnant.
Each solar system within the Remnant star system has a collection of habitable worlds, with the designated Prime Worlds (That being home worlds) Being called Beacon, Haven, Shade, and Atlas, each with their own moons and space stations around them, and each system having its own quirks about it.
In the past, the Atlas system was originally an uninhabited solar system, and the Dominion had based itself in the Mantle system, with its Prime World being that of Shelter. However, due to rapid and unstable levels of industrialisation and pollution, by the time of the Dominion's collapse, the ecosystems of all planets within the system had collapsed, rendering the worlds uninhabitable, and forcing many survivors of the catastrophe to move into the empty neighbouring system of Atlas. Now, the Mantle system is a wasteland of garbage worlds and rings of scrap surrounding them, inhabited by those who had chosen not to abandon their homes, and now suffered from air poisoning and viruses from the environmental pollution surrounding them, as well as Atlesian military forces, tied to either the government or the corporations, continue to stamp their boots into the oppressed people. However, within the Mantle system, and particularly the world of Shelter, an uprising against the corruption of Atlas is beginning to form, centred around one young Mantlian named Robyn Hill and her crew of renegades, and now, skirmishes and raids against the corporate militaries and Atlesian PMCs are beginning to break out within the system, carried out by a cumbersome fleet of Junkers and scavenged ships, all of them made from scraps and ruins of other craft, and none of them looking the same as the other.
Speaking of which, within the Atlas solar system, the world of Alsius stood out as a verdant utopia, a beautiful mixture of nature and technological progression, known across the star system of Remnant as a beacon of technological advancement and achievement. However, this beauty has come at a cost, as Atlas has also become a den of elitism and entitlement. Racism and classism rule over Atlas' society, and Alsius has become the centrepiece for that sense of elitism. Not only that, but corporations and private organisations have begun to seize up political power within the Atlesian government, buying stocks out of the oversized Atlesian military, now bloated and almost its own separate entity from Atlas by the time that the story begins, and allowing the corporations to create their own private armies, in similar vein to the megacorporations of the Star Wars universe.
There is a rising fear within the Remnant star system that Atlas is trying to revive the Dominion, not helped at all by the massive military that they have created for themselves, and the corporate armies that are beginning to impose their will on other, smaller organisations across the solar systems, and pushing out the lesser businesses (The Schnee Trading Company has become notably notorious for this). The massive warships within their fleets- Such as the twenty-kilometre long Loyalty-class dreadnaught- And the swarms of picket ships used by the corporations, as well as the two-kilometre long Profiteer-class destroyer known as the Nicholas, the flagship of the STC's fleet, those fears only grow worse and worse. And as the STC continue to push out their competition and swallow entire companies whole, and Atlas continues to swell their military and grow fatter and fatter with each passing day, they might sprout as many excuses about security against GRIMM droids and pirate gangs as much as they want, but everyone can guess where it will eventually lead.
The ships that are fielded by Atlas resemble that of the First Order from Star Wars, with gargantuan fleets fielding swarms of fighters, whilst the STC's fleet resembles that of the Empire, with the Nicholas being essentially an Imperial-class star destroyer, though not said of course.
However, there is one thing that has truly been stopping Alsius', and the STC's, expansion into the Remnant system, and that is both the exotic, rainforest planet of Menagerie, and the private military organisation known as the Fang. Menagerie is a planet not found within its own solar system, and exists in the boundary between the inner systems of Remnant. It is a world that has also been turned into a save haven for the Faunus, and considering the origins of the Faunus as genetically engineered slaves of the Dominion, it is also a longstanding and historic enemy of the Atlas solar system, and is one of the few reasons that they haven expanded out into the other solar systems. In fact, the two sides have been enemies for so long, that the private military known as the Fang was created in response to Atlas' aggression, now having based themselves on Menagerie's largest moon, Kuo Kuana, and turned the moon as the launching ground for their operations. Founded by both Ghira and Kali Belladonna, and now led by Sienna Khan, the Fang is split into several divisions, each one based on a colour and charged with a different purpose: The Blue Fang serves as the home defence force of both Menagerie and Kuo Kuana, the Red Fang is in charge of hit and runs, raids, and general offensive operations against the SDC and Atlesians, the Yellow Fang would be the diplomats and political negotiators for the larger organisation, the Green Fang is in charge of ecological restoration and first aid to wounded civilians, and the Black Fang specialises in black-ops missions and under the table operations.
However, one division, the White Fang, would radicalise under the violent leadership of one Adam Taurus and break away from the Fang at large, going to attack not just the Atlesians and the SDC, but all humans in all systems, and any Faunus that do not stand with them.
The Fang's space fleet would consist primarily of the Needler-class interceptor corvette, and the Lightspeed-class fighter, designed primarily for hit and run attacks and lighting quick raids on enemy positions. These ships would resemble Mandalorian craft from Star Wars.
The Fang would not be the only thing getting in the way of the STC and Atlesians, though, as various pirate fleets, bandit ships, smugglers and criminals would make a habit of raiding their ships and fleeing back to the Vacuo solar system.
Vacuo was a solar system of crime and disorder- Left that way by the Dominion during their last stand against the Colour Revolution, and the devastation that it left behind- With no central government aside from the loose collective power held by the Shade Prime World and its moon of Oscuro. Satellite colonies in its asteroid belt, such as Coquina, Schist, Feldspar, Kenyte, Tuff, and Gossan, were given their loose protection, but the rest of the solar system was a no mans land, given over to gangs and Grimm. Now, Vacuo's delicate power hung on a knife's edge as more and more resources and territories were given to the bandit space clans- Including the growing Branwen Alliance, a confederation of pirate fleets and scrapper crews, united under the role of the strongest- With the situation growing worse every day.
Due to the decentralised nature of the Vacuo star system, and because of the pirates and GRIMM that flew between the stars, the system had no primary fleet and ship type to call its own, and gave the job of policing the asteroid colonies under its protection to private contractors and mercenaries, though as many of these contractors were treacherous as the rest were loyal to the job they were hired to do. However, many of these treacherous mercenaries have already left in order to take up arms for an organisation called the Crown, operating out of an abandoned orbital platform known as the Mirage, with plans for all of the Vacuo system.
Think of the ships in Vacuo as the pirate clans and ships from Star Wars, like the Ohnaka Gang and the Nihil, whilst the ships of the Branwen Alliance resemble that of the Banished from Halo.
If Vacuo could be considered total chaos, then the Mistral solar system is organised chaos. Mistral itself is composed primarily of a triad of planets locked in the same orbital path with each other, being Haven, Wind Path, and Kuchinashi, with the moons of Kuroyuri, Shion, Oniyuri, and Higanbana sharing that same path, and the moon of Argus positioned on the edge of the system, the closest to Atlas, Sanctum Space Station high in its orbit.
The Mistral solar system is one focused on culture and freedom of expression, weaving its entire society around the celebration of the arts and crafts, and spending much of its time hosting planet wide parties and festivals, stretching out over days and weeks and even months to no end, its economy growing fat over the vast amounts of trade and tourists that they were able to pull in over the course of these festivities. However, much of the profit of these festivities are taken by the upper classes of the system, with the lower classes- Particularly Faunus camps and towns- Are subject to cruelty and exploitation by the criminal underworld.
Indeed, Mistral's organised chaos comes in the form of the various crime families that control vast economic districts and enterprises within the system. These resource barons maintain a constant stranglehold on trade in the system, and it is their fleets of fighters and junks- Of Seraph-class corvettes, Wraith bombers, and Ghost fighters- That traders and scrapmen approach for protection, not the official Mistralian government.
Priding themselves as the artisans and craftsmen of the star system, the ships of Mistral- Even the ones controlled by criminals- Are built with curves and flow in mind. They do not carry the oppressive utilitarianism of Atlas, nor the chaotic disunity of Vacuo, nor the scavenged jaggedness of Mantle. Instead, the ships of Mistral are curved and smooth, filled with rounded hulls and curving edges. There is an organic-like nature to Mistralian craft, like the Reaper-class fighter, which looks like a Beetle without legs, the Spirit-class gunship, which looks like a moth with its wings spread, and the Revenant class assault carrier, which looks like a whale without its fins. Think of the Covenant from Halo.
Where Mistral favours art, though, the solar system called Vale favours only one thing: Practicality. Centred around the Prime World of Beacon, the Vale system contains the moons of Sumire, Lower Cairn, and Higher Cairn, the training space station of Signal, and the trading post of Pharos. The people of the Vale system favour personal freedom and practicality, and their ships reflect this, as each civilian pilot is expected to have their own custom ride, not alike to another and unique to themselves (Much to the frustration of the engineers and mechanics of the world). Despite this, however, the Vale system is also one of relative pacifism and neutrality in the Remnant star system, much in contrast to its history of rebelliousness, as well as its historic mark as the birthplace of the Colour Revolution a century ago.
Much like the spirit of Vale, the ships themselves are more focused on practicality and personal freedom. As such, the mainline ships of the small Valerian Judicial Force resemble the UNSC warships from Halo, with personal emblems covering them to identify their owners, along with additional customisation and ports added to them as well, like additional weapons and engines on top of that.
However, there are two additional factions added to the mix as well: The GRIMM, and the Independents.
The GRIMM, as said before, are rogue wardroids leftover from the Dominion's rule a hundred years ago, and since then they have aged and rusted over the years, taking on monstrous forms with the passing of time, and looking more like twisted monstrosities, covered in gashes and metal scars from battles long past than the top of the line machines that they once were.
Each GRIMM wardroid would resemble a robotic version of their canon counterpart, with BEOWOLVES resembling flying combat grappling androids shaped like monstrous wolves, NEVERMORE drones looking like robot ravens that clawed at fighters with robotic talons and fired tracking missiles from patchy wings, and URSA drones that resemble flying versions of the Carbonite War Droids from Star Wars, with the URSA MINOR being able to shoot lasers, whilst the URSA MAJORS acting as artillery platforms. Meanwhile, the list of GRIMM droid variants continues on with GOLIATH fighter platforms armed with anti-fighter turrets, MEGOLIATH support bases riddled with tracking missiles and capable of deploying RAVAGER dismantler drones, BERINGEL terror droids, resembling mutilated bears, that board opposing vessels on glider wings and carry within them swarms of tiny SULFUR FISH combat probes, SAYBR combat androids that look and act more like animals than what they were meant to be, BOARBATUSK pod fighters that swarm their enemies alongside CREEP support craft, DEATH STALKER fighter killers that actively seek out and target hostile fighters, APATHY power drainers that resemble orbital mines and override the controls of any ships surrounding it, NUCKELAVEE cyborgs made from the rotting corpses of captured humans and turned into boarders and anti-personnel troopers, TEMPEST destroyers that are, thankfully, few and far between for the Grimm to make proper use of (Though their deployable fleets of RAZORWING and TERYX fighter craft are a constant herald of their arrival in a system), WYVERN corvettes and LEVIATHAN frigates that constantly harass the space lanes, the rumoured MONSTRA dreadnaught, many kilometres in length and bristling with weapons, thought to be destroyed at the Dominion's fall a hundred years ago, but has become the Bigfoot of the Remnant system, with rumours and supposed sightings boundless and in galore, and so many more variants of the renegade droids.
The GRIMM have been a constant source of horror and devastation across the years, and it has given the Independents of the Remnant system the most trouble. These Independents are people that live in space haulers and junkers outside of the rule of the solar systems, and make their living as self-sufficient workers and movers not tied to any government or system. As such, because of the perils and vulnerabilities of living away from the security of the four systems, the Independents are also the fiercest fighters against the GRIMM. As such, two new communities have been spawned from the struggles of the Independents against these monsters.
First, are the Hunters, renowned fighter pilots that have made their living hunting down and shooting Grimm for bounties and sport. These pilots always fly customised, highly exotic ships that are adapted to fight against the GRIMM, always completely different from each other, and all armed with weapons and tools made to suit the pilots (Which is an even bigger frustration for engineers and mechanics alike). These Hunter pilots organise themselves either into teams of four, or go solo, and entire family lineages have made their name hunting down all sorts of GRIMM. However, many Hunters have a tendency to be the fiercest of the Independents, and constantly chaff and challenge any kind of system authority whenever they are forced to trade with one of them. The fighters that they ride tend to look something like the racing ships from Star Wars: Resistance.
The other community of Independents to rise up from the carnage of the Grimm are the Scrapmen, salvagers and scrappers that have made their living from hauling salvage from the ruins of the Dominion from a hundred years ago, as well as the remains of recent battles between Hunters and GRIMM. They are also referred to as Hunter Seekers, due to many of them trailing behind Hunter starfighters and chasing them to the next battle so that they can be the first to the salvage. In fact, many Scrapmen have even made extra money in acting as scouts for the Hunters, risking going into GRIMM territory, especially when the swarms of rogue wardroids are at their highest, all just to get salvage privileges on the GRIMM remains afterwards. These Scrapmen, instead of living in plush and customised fighters like Hunters, make their living within haulers, junkers, and freighters, filling the bellies of their ships with metal and rubble, and spending more time in spacesuits than in actual suits. Their ships are a mixture of frigates and freighters, much like how freighters appear in Star Wars and Halo.
The first part of the story, for its majority, spends its time in a cluster of asteroids that had been brought and slashed together into a massive space station called the Patch, a trading port and training post for Hunters, Scrapmen, and other Independents, existing outside the boundaries of the solar systems and serving as neutral ground for any people from the four systems- Whom are referred to as 'Nationalists' by Independents. Within the Patch, many of the main characters of the story meet, and their fates begin to intertwine and intersect with each other.
Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long have made their living as mechanics and engineers for various space craft within the Patch, though their favourite customers to their workshop are always Hunters, due to them having the coolest ships and the best stories. As their own parents, Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose, are Hunters themselves (Though they don't talk about Qrow and Raven Branwen for a reason), Ruby dreams of becoming a Hunter pilot and taking the fight to the GRIMM herself, whilst Yang has been assembling her own hot-rod starfighter, the Ember Celica, from scratch, using her own experience from building her speeder bike Bumblebee to create it, and dreams of escaping from the Remnant star system and going off to explore the galaxy beyond their system.
Weiss Schnee, meanwhile, has arrived on the Patch to act as a representative of the SDC, independent from Atlas itself, and has been sheltered for the larger part of her life by her father and family, raised and conditioned to believe in the values of the SDC. However, soon, she is drawn into the political conflict of the Patch, between the Independents and the various system Nationalists, and begins to grow more and more exposed to the nuances of the worlds outside of the STC, as well as the abuses of her family's business onto the worlds around them. Slowly, she begins to expand her world view and grow as a person, though this is not at all without threats to her life as well, as the STC, and Atlas, have made a lot of enemies over the years.
Blake, a White Fanger, is one of those enemies. As a member of the renegade White Fang, she and her brothers and sisters are despised by humans and Faunus alike, though the latter confuses her since she believed that they were always fighting for Faunus rights. So, when she and her fellow White Fanger, Ilia, board the Patch and find the future heiress to the Schnee Trading Company onboard, suddenly they are presented with the perfect chance to assassinate a major political figure against their kind and strike a major blow for the Faunus, then they are all for it, and they begin their plan by first slinking their way into the heiress' good graces, gain both her trust and valuable intelligence, and then stab her in the back and leave her corpse out to hang once she has outlived her usefulness. However, as Blake and Weiss begin to grow closer as friends, so does Blake begin to doubt both her mission and her own cause, slowly growing more and more exposed to the cruelties that the White Fang has perpetuated alongside the Atlas system and the STC, and becomes disillusioned with her previous cause, pushing her back to the Fang at large and drawing her into conflict with her exes in Ilia and Adam, who are still White Fangers, and violent rejecters of the wider Fang.
The White Fang in Blake and Ilia is not the only casual criminal that boards the Patch, though. Ren and Nora exist in this universe as a pair of space pirates and raiders, flying out of a shuttlecraft known as the Magnhild (Modelled after the Razor Crest), with a pair of fighters attached called the Storm Flowers (I personally base them on a blend of models between the A-Wing and the Tri-Fighter), And regularly attack shipping from the STC, White Fang, Nationalists from the four systems, Independents, fellow pirates and bandits. Basically, anyone and everyone. However, after a botched heist on a cargo hauler belonging to the STC, and now on the run from Atlesian enforcers, they are forced to hide out on the Patch, and make themselves at home within the lower districts and industrial zones of the space station. However, soon, they are exposed to the troubles that raiders like them give to the impoverished people that rely on the shipping of food and other resources to survive, and begin to fly mercy and resupply missions to help feed the less fortunate onboard the Patch.
The more fortunate of the Patch, however, are happy to announce the newest member of their training school for Hunter pilots: Pyrrha Nikos, a champion ace pilot, a winner of multiple competitions, and proud nationalist for the Mistral solar system. At least, supposedly. The truth is that Pyrrha, as a champion starfighter pilot, has always been approached and harassed for her position, not just by rabid fans, but also by the crime families of the Mistral system as well, all of them seeking to add her to their fleets of privateers, and forcing her to flee from the system and into the Patch, away from the criminal ties of her home. However, she finds herself coming under fire as soon as she lands in the station, from both visiting Mistralian Nationalists and bitter Independents, and sabotage is attempted on her Hunter ship, Miló, from both sides that despise her for all sorts of reasons. This leaves her alone and friendless, with only her personal A.I., Akoúo̱, as her close company.
However, she soon finds a real friend in the form of a boy called Jaune Arc, who lives with his family on the freighter known as the Arcadia. The Arc family, in contrast to Pyrrha, live as Scrapmen, pulling apart ship husks and dead GRIMM for spare parts, and not only chasing after Hunters for the next big payday, but also scouting ahead of them for the bonus and scrap guarantee as well. The Arcadia itself has its own personal fighter attached known as the Crocea Mors, and Jaune has always dreamed of using his family's ancestral ship to become a Hunter himself, though he doesn't have the training or experience in order to achieve such a dream, and as such, is deeply insecure about it, especially when compared with his more successful siblings. However, now, they are forced to shelter in the Patch thanks to an incident with the STC, in which they and a dozen other Scrapmen ships, as well as Yellow Fang diplomats, were captured in tractor beams by the Nicholas, the STC's flagship, but were able to not only escape from the STC, but humiliate them via not only breaking free of their tractor beams, but also disabling the Nicholas as well and allowing for them to jump through a warp gate get away, making the Arc family heroes in the eyes of a lot of people, but also granting them a lot of enemies as well, in which they are forced to hide away from.
So, the first part of the story is centred around the Patch, and works to set up the many conflicts and struggles that will come in the future.
However, the peace of the Patch is soon interrupted by a massive calamity.
The GRIMM attack.
A massive swarm of GRIMM droids, including the rumoured MONSTRA dreadnaught, attack the Patch space station and completely destroy it, killing most of the people onboard, and scattering the rest to the winds. In response to the calamity, the main cast are forced to fight their way through the invading GRIMM droids and board the Arcadia, blasting off from the burning station and run for their lives, hopscotching across the star system and into the four solar systems within it, on the run from the GRIMM- An enemy that seems to be after them for some strange reason.
Or more like after Ruby for some strange reason.
Soon, it is revealed why: Ruby is the descendant of a GRIMM REAPER, an artificial human, much like the Faunus, made by the Dominion a hundred years ago to be a living computer, and has the capability to not only subdue the GRIMM, but control them as well.
And SALEM, the rogue Dominion A.I. who has recently taken control of the GRIMM and embraced a nihilistic ideology that demands her to destroy all life in the Remnant star system, and then the galaxy at large, does not want this, and needs to kill Ruby as soon as possible.
So, the rest of the story is set aboard the Arcadia, as the various issues and conflicts between the characters is constantly challenging them and their relationships, testing and pushing them into growing closer and closer as friends and family, until soon they are able to live as one ship, and one crew.
All the while, they are chased across the solar systems and forced to engage and intervene in the various wars and conflicts that are beginning to break out across the star system, and end up not only building a vast network of allies in the form of other Hunters, Menagerie, the Fang, and so on, but also a vaster array of enemies, such as the GRIMM, the STC, the White Fang, Mistral's crime families, the Branwen Alliance, the Crown, and so on.
As the star system inches closer and closer to an all-out catastrophe, our crew of washouts and strays, criminals and lawmakers, refugees and hopefuls, find themselves at the forefront of making sure that war never breaks out.
Theirs is a story that will take them soaring through the stars.
I have to be honest with you, this is one of my proudest ideas. I'm super pleased with the worldbuilding that I've put into this. This is probably one of my best ideas that I've put up onto this collection of story ideas.
Yay.
Anyways, if any of you want to use this idea, then just send me a PM, and it's all yours, but until next time...
Titanmaster 117 out!