"There's so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day. And because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everyone lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end... they just have to have faith. Ain't that a bitch."

Long Night of Solace, Operation UPPERCUT

"Tell them to make it count"

Jorge thrust Noble Six out of Ardent Prayer. Jorge picked up his helmet and slid it over his head, it tugged roughly at his ears the way it usually did.

"Auntie, give me the detonation codes"

"Forwarding now", the AI Replied.

Jorge has always wanted an advanced AI, but only the best got those, those like John. Jorge made do with his 'personal combat assistant' Pat, a primitive AI.

Jorge's thumb drive lit up with an ominous ruby color. He plugged it in and typed quickly. Access code accepted.

Jorge gazed down at Reach through the smooth tendrils of the plasma bay door. A great flash of light filled his vision.

Splotches of vision returned, and Jorge felt, at the very least, not dead.

Through the energy barrier Jorge no longer saw Reach; Jorge saw an entirely different celestial body. Jorge scratched at his visor trying to find purchase on a small button that would reset his visor to de-polarize from the flash, befuddled. He glared over at the malfunctioning slip space bomb. It read 'detonation successful'. Jorge did not have time to speculate. The unmistakable whir of a fuel rod cannon began to charge behind him. Jorge's training kicked in, and nearly 30 years of service had made him one with both his armor and his body. Jorge whipped his head around and saw a Majekelo, commonly known as a 'hunter', leveling a fuel rod cannon at him.

A large blast erupted from the cannon. Jorge ducked down as his energy shields complained loudly in his ears. The hunter, awaiting his cannon to re-charge, tucked its head and lowered its shoulder as it rushed Jorge. Jorge spinning quickly on his heel, maneuvered out the luminous hole in the Pelican's hull, still glowing a sickly verdant hue from the blast. Turning quickly, he leveled his chain gun for the hunters exposed back. In dismay, Jorge realized he had no barrel left on his gun, halved and dripping green plasma, sizzling absent-mindlessly where present. Letting it drop to the deck with a metallic thump, Jorge sprinted across the metallic-purple floor of Ardent Prayer's bay. Jorge's shields, slow to charge, began to whir back to life. Two beeps rose to a crescendo in his helmet, but before Jorge could react, the hunter's blast passed to the right of his thigh, grazing it enough lock out the power-assisted movement component, immobilizing it.

Jorge collapsed to the ground as his knee locked and gave in. Jorge began dragging himself towards the large glimmering shield door less than 15 paces away. The hunter advanced on him. Jorge rose unsteadily as he pushed his body away from the Hunter. The Hunter quietly leveled its massive fuel rod cannon

Blang!

Jorge threw himself into a pirouette, momentum pushing him into a haphazard sprint. Wondering the floor plummeted away from Jorge as he realized the Ardent Prayer was tilting. Jorge soared out the bay door and began his fall as the strange planet seemed to be closer to swallowing Jorge with each passing second. Shattered moon overhead, along with the massive Covenant Super Carrier Long Night of Solace, the hunter and the damaged pelican came tumbling after him. Panicking, the hunter fired its cannon, and it jolted away from the blast in the vacuum of space.

Jorge would usually brandish a bemused smirk at such a sight, but the rather large creature was hurtling towards him, viciously twirling around an unseen axis centered within its looming figure. Brilliant shadows traced by bright purple danced in Jorge's vision.

Remembering his Zero-G training back on Reach, Jorge focused on the Hunter, growing ever closer in his field of view.

Wait for it… Wait for it… Right as the creature was about to collide with him, Jorge drove his hands deep into the worms that made up the hunter. A loud smack tested his grip as the nearly 11 foot tall hunter collided into him with the force of a cannon blast. Jorge's shields dropped, and the vacuum of space began to tug uncomfortably at his wounded thigh, small strips of blood racing from Jorge. The hunter began to squirm with confusion, then began to charge his cannon once again, pointing it at his stomach in an effort to erase the unwelcome mass that now grappled onto its body.

"Oh the hell you do, you can of worms"

Jorge began to tear out fistfuls of the worms that made up the hunter.

The struggle was a silent one, for they were in space.

The cannon continued to charge, longer than usual, the hunter must have been overcharging his cannon. Rarely done, and causing a devastatingly filthy explosion, a suicidal dirty bomb. Jorge had personally seen an overcharged Fuel Rod level a building, and here he was, just a Spartan. Jorge, now clamping both legs around the hunter, sped up his tearing, pulling out rough clumps of orange worms and tossing them into the void of space. They began to enter the planet's atmosphere, and his shields began to dip. The cannon climaxed, but did not fire.

It began to whir down. Relief flooded Jorge, but he could not yet relax. Jorge peered back, a trail of worms floating behind him, glistening in the moonlight, the closest ones still wriggling, the furthest ones already having succumbed to asphyxiation, tumbled through the void motionless Long Night of Solace. Re-entry continued to tear at MLJOLNER, and then he spotted it. The Pelican in the distance, the belly was ruby red as it hurtled closer and closer to the planet. Jorge grabbed the fuel rod cannon and aimed it in the opposite direction of the pelican, towards Ardent Prayer, which now sped towards him. Lights visible from the dark side of the planet gave away the fact that intelligent life lived here.

Jorge knowing what to do fired the cannon and hurtled towards the pelican. His target was the glowing hole in its side, and with his current trajectory, added the seemingly random tumbling motions of the pelican, luck would need to be on his side.

And it usually wasn't.

Jorge fired the cannon again, jolting him faster as he raced towards the whirling bird. The pelican spun into place right in time, Jorge flying into it and hitting the wall. Hard. Stars filled his vision.

City Interior, Kingdom of Vale

Ruby Rose, now 25 years of age sat in her office. Twirling her coffee cup, she took a long sip before glaring at her monitor. Her scroll began to buzz, shaking her desk. She quickly removed it from the dock and opened it. 3 Ursae trapped in a dust mining pit had been discovered by the mining crew, much to the dismay of the Schnee Dust Company's bottom line. Ruby looked at the clock, only two minutes were left before her shift was over.

"Do I have to take this one, I mean, there's a killer Spruce Willis movie that I was going to-"

"C'mon Ruby, you know contract cancellations cost me an arm and a leg… well maybe just a leg. Do me a favor and take this one sis?"

"You owe me", Ruby quipped before closing the message.

Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose and, with one last swig of her cappuccino, headed towards the parking lot.

Taking a hint from Yang, Ruby had bought a motorcycle faithfully named Knockout. She attached her scythe-sniper to the exhaust and clicked her scroll into place on the dash. The GPS fired up, and Ruby roared through Vale.

After a 30-minute ride through the outskirts of Vale (and some rather un-friendly areas of the city) she reached her destination. The Achieve Men blaring on her radio, Ruby clicked it off and grabbed Crescent Rose. Ruby's boots crunched as she walked on the gravel, nearing the tin awning covering the dust pit. A roar, unmistakably an Ursa's, shook the ground, gravel rocks actually popping up from the path with the concussive force of the roar. Ruby's face remained unchanged, almost bored, confirmed as she then yawned.

"The coffee used to hit hard, gets shittier with each passing week", she groaned as she neared the pit.

Ruby clicked Crescent Rose to life, the metallic clicks cascading into a sythe, garnering the three Ursa's attention. The first one rushed her, with a single swipe of her scythe, its head lolled forward. The other two began to back up, Ruby rewarded their cowardice by pumping three high-powered rounds right into the Ursa's eye socket. It collapsed in a large heap. Enraged, the last one dashed quickly at the Red hooded women. Ruby jumped up, swinging the scythe around the last Ursa's stumpy neck. The Ursa looked confused, Ruby explained it by pulling the trigger, the recoil driving the scythe through its neck. Its head hit the ground with a sickening thump at the same time Ruby returned to the ground.

"Give me a challenge for once, guys" Ruby smiled cockily, flicking goblets of blood of Crescent Rose. Her scroll began to ring. Yang probably calling to ask her if she had finished the job yet, having your sister as the boss had its perks, but Yang expected more out of her than any other huntsmen and huntress. Then the ringing intensified, signaling she had two incoming messages. The ringing continued to intensify, vibrating to the point Ruby couldn't read what was on the screen, and it hurt to hold her scroll. Tossing it up into the air and catching it only to toss it up again minimalizing contact with her vibrating scroll, she began to walk outside. The vibrating stopped as the scroll shattered against the gravel. Ruby looked up in utter awe. There, blotting out the better part of the sky was a large bulbous spacecraft. It was a metallic purple and silver, with a large hook shaped prowl, easily the size of a city.

"What in the name of Grimm is that?"

Temperate District, Vacuo

Jorge lay motionless watching Long Night of Solace, having not yet set up a spire to cloak the ship, slowly sail through the sky. A sharp pain in his leg reminded him of his injury. Jorge removed the spent fuel rod cannon from his lap and tapped a switch on his thigh-plate, revealing his bloody burn. Fumbling into his backpack he pulled out a canister of bio-foam and proceeded to nurse his injury.

Looking out on the wreckage, Jorge saw a DMR laying half buried in dirt. Re-booting his HUD, he redirected some power back to his neural implant. His overcharged shields, overcharged automatically to help him survive impact turned from emerald green to a dandelion yellow before finally disappearing from view as they lowered back to normal levels. Jorge laundered away from the crashed pelican, kicking the dirt off of the DMR and loading a magazine into his rifle from his bag. He had 3 left plus the magazine already loaded, totaling at 56 medium power rifle rounds.

"Pat, where is the slip space device" Jorge asked, there being no rest for the wicked.

"Slip Space device located in this general area approximately 12 kilometers from your position" Pat droned in his artificial vocabulary.

A rough waypoint appeared in Jorge's HUD. He had always loved hikes.

Nightfall began to shroud the desert area he wandered. His A/C was working overtime, and it did little to counteract the fact he was in ½ a ton of MLJOLNER.

"Internal Temperature at 100.7 degrees Fahrenheit" Pat sounded off "Advise finding shade"

Jorge cursed the geniuses at ONI. Really? Find shade? Night is falling; the shade is coming to me. Jorge's HUD showed he was nearing his objective, closing in at 800 meters, he was now simply falling the skid the device left behind as it had slammed into this planet. Jorge saw it, but was startled when he saw what was around the slip space bomb. Two large snakes, one black, one white, where investigating the bomb; Jorge shouldered his rifle, and wondered if it would be enough to take out the two gigantic serpents.

" I would advise against rushing the hostiles, select a more stealthy method of attack," Pat cooed.

For once, Pat had given sound advice. Jorge went prone and began to slowly sneak towards the two snakes. Jorge continued to near the serpents, ungodly in size

"I see the genius in you plan, but this is not how to go about taking out a King Taijitu"

Jorge quickly spun around, pointing his DMR between the strangers' eyes, in response; the stranger leveled two green SMG's with large daggers at Jorge.

"State your business" Jorge said, realizing the man was exactly that, a man; although, he possessed purple eyes, which he found very strange.

"Calm it, my name's Ren. I've been sent to dispatch this Taijitu, but I did not know they had already sent another huntsmen" Ren slowly lowered StormFlower.

"A huntsman?" Jorge retorted, obviously confused.

"I must ask though, why would someone in the deserts of Vacuo put on that armor?" Before Ren could question further, the Taijitu became aware of their presence and began slithering towards their position.

Jorge quickly leveled his DMR and fired four rounds, each shattering a fang in the two-headed snake. The serpent let out a large hiss, venom dribbling from the jagged stumps that remained of their fangs. At the same time Ren began firing off into the black-headed serpent's eyes. Jorge noted the strange blue muzzle flash that illuminated from Rens' weapons. The black snake collapsed, dead. The white snake, now enraged, quickly closed the remaining ground and bit Jorge. Its remaining teeth shattered against Jorge's energy shield as he pumped his remaining rounds down the white snake's throat. The snake's mouth fell open and Jorge climbed out, discovering Ren, retrieving StormFlower from the white snake's red eyes. The snake itself began evaporating into black mist.

"What is the name of this colony" Jorge stammered, amazed.

"Colony? We are in Vacuo" Ren retorted matter-of-factly. "So I'm guessing you're involved with that thing" He said, pointing up at Long Night of Solace, clearly illuminated by Remnant's shattered moon.

"In a way", Jorge replied, "I need to secure that device over there and see your CO"

"Come" Ren stated simply. A strange airship with 4 prongs extending as it approached, tow cable attaching to the slip space device.

Bridge, Long Night of Solace

Rho 'Barutamee sat in the captain chair on the bridge of Long Night of Solace. He noted lazily that the bridge was awash with activity, more than usual. He gazed curiously at the planets moon; large chunks had splintered off and made quite a beautiful sight. Despite all the activity, none had spoken, as if afraid to upset their captain and inquire his wrath.

"Sir, we are no longer in orbit around Reach", a grunt ultra noted from his station, "In fact, judging from the data we currently have, we are no longer located in the Milky Way. These stars match no known star charts".

"Perhaps", he continued, "The high levels of human-created Shaw-Fujikawa radiation suggests something detonated a slip space bomb. Yes sir, the event matches data from a previous encounter at a forerunner world destroyed by the same device. Sir, I believe the blast has somehow…reconciled us elsewhere"

The bridge remained silent, as the captain quietly pondered the information.

"So", Rho 'Barutamee began "Moments ago, we were erasing the human held world of Reach for the glory of the covenant, and we are now in orbit around an entirely different planet, in some kind of quantum reconciliation!"

His voice raised, he grabbed his First Mate by the neck, an Elite, but Rho was taller than him. Rho 'Barutamee suspended him by the neck, choking him as he continued.

"And the only person on my bridge with enough, balls, to speak up is a… grunt!"

He threw his first mate to the deck, who rose with his energy sword in a crisp motion, insulted. 'Rho kicked the sword out of his hand and brought an energy dagger up quickly as it passed from under his first mate's jaw into his cranium. The first mate slumped to the deck unceremoniously. He beckoned to the grunt ultra

"You, what's your name?" Rho 'Barutamee quietly asked, a sharp change from his rage.

" Uhh, jegjeg, sir" replied the grunt, rather surprised.

"You have now been promoted to First Mate, seeing as there is an, opening, in the position" he sneered, looking down at the dead elite, "and someone get this scum off my bridge."

"Two vessels from the planet in-bound towards the ship, very light class, comparable to a phantom, what action should we take?" A kig-yar at his terminal spoke up suddenly

"Smite them both, ventral beam blast, show the inhabitants of this planet we are not interested in chat"

Rho watched as the ship whirred to life, a large ventral blast vaporizing the two approaching ships. Definitively overkill, but shows of power like this would get the message across; age old logic that was still sound.

Mine is bigger than theirs.

Rho 'Barutamee marched off the bridge.

"Someone give me a sit-rep on Ardent Prayer, and jegjeg, prepare a spire for a cloaking operation" Rho boomed

City Interior, Vale

Ruby burst into the office.

"YANG!" Ruby Yelled "YANG WHERE ARE YOU?!"

She walked over to an access terminal and quickly transferred all her files to a new scroll. After a minute of impatiently waiting, a scroll popped out of the dispenser and Ruby grabbed it. She looked at her messages.

'Ruby, take care of the Ursae and get back ASAP' –Yang

'I'm on my way back to Vale as fast as this airship can go' –Weiss

'I have summoned Team RWBY and JNPR, come quickly to Beacon' –Jaune

'Not the way I envisioned our reunion, but I'll see you at Beacon' -Pyrrha

'Boop' -Nora

The third message caught Ruby's eye. As quickly as she had come in, she left, quickly hopping onto Knockout, she sped towards Beacon. Night was falling under a strange sky.

Ruby burst through the second set of doors in the day, Jaune's office in the massive clock tower that overlooked Beacon Academy. After all, Jaune was the headmaster of Beacon, the youngest ever. The concerned eyes of six huntresses and huntsmen fell upon Ruby. They sat in chairs around Jaune's desk.

Blake, after it all went down, had gone on to be a politician, standing up for Faunus's everywhere. She had taken large strides, but nonetheless, still found time for girl's night out. She sat reading a document on her scroll.

Weiss had finally succeeded her parents, and now headed the Schnee Dust Company. Unlike Blake, her work kept her mostly in Atlas, rarely making the trip to Vale to visit.

Phyrra was the general of Vale's military forces. Her work had hardened her, but she still had the magnetic personality that people loved, she eyed her husband, Jaune, curiously.

Nora lived with Ren in Vacuo, as they were both part of a unit that takes care of the creatures of Grimm in that area, the same as how Ruby and Yang took care of creatures of Grimm that showed up in Vale.

Yang, wearing a concerned look on her face, glaring anxiously out the window anxiously tapping her prosthetic right arm, was a full-time huntress, like Ruby and Nora.

Only one person was missing…

"Wheres Ren?" Ruby asked quickly, breaking the silence.

"He's currently on the way, and he has someone with him that can shed light on what's going on" Jaune spoke calmly. Nothing betrayed his voice, and he spoke as if this was as normal as a student had asked him for directions to a class.

"Well, what do we know so far?" Ruby asked.

"Not much, not enough" Blake spoke up, obviously more in tune that the rest "But whatever it is, it doesn't seem to want to voice itself".

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.

"Ironwood sent up two political envoys to see what we were up against", Pyrrha spoke as her scroll began to display two small airships cruising towards the behemoth capital ship. A large burst of molten blue discharged, and when the brightness of the blast cleared, nothing remained of the political envoy. "It's a plasma weapon, and a powerful one at that. Whatever it is, it wants to be left alone".

"So what are we here for?" Yang asked

Pyrrha continued "a smaller craft of similar origin crash landed in Atlas following the appearance of the mother ship last night. After Ren arrives with our special guest, we will mount an expedition to get whatever Intel we can from that ship before they get it back"

"Assuming they even go for it" Blake spoke

"You assume they have not already," Pyrrha snapped, and it settled on everyone. There was so much they didn't know that they needed to find out.

Everyone let the finality of the situation set in, the large craft, clearly visible outside their window, was beginning to orbit back into view, as if trying to push the truth upon them. Until they knew they were not under attack, they were under attack.

Despite the speed of their flight, Jorge was surprised at how silent the ship was. Come to think of it, he couldn't see any motors or engines, it's as if they were swimming, as four large prongs on the back of the ship pulsated seemingly pushing them through the air. Ren broke the silence.

"You're not from around here, are you"?

"I'm from Reach" Jorge responded.

"Come again?"

"So we are on Vacuo you said, My AI says that the name matches no known human colonies in the UNSC"

"This part of Remnant, yeah. What is the UNSC?" Ren asked, face full of confusion.

"What is going on here"? Jorge quietly cursed to himself, even more befuddled than Ren.

For the first time in his life, Jorge's training was failing him. He was a Spartan, and all he had ever known was how to fight and survive. Perhaps the ultimate test was upon him.

[Location Redacted]

Salem gazed upon the alien vessel through the mist of the Scrying Eye. Her eyes flickered as she summoned a tarot card and tore it in two causing it to disintegrate. Salem threw the powder onto the floor, and it began to compound and expand as flames erupted and fleshy viscera visibly took form.

The violent reaction settled, the flames sputtering into silence. Cinder Fall now stood before Salem, naked and confused.

"Don't act so foolish, death is just as temporary as life. Its been little a decade" Salem began, pacing close to cinder

Salem grasped the side of Cinder's face in a threatening manner, pure venom in her cold voice. "Your... lack of faith will be punished another time, but that time is not now. Listen to me, here now is a chance to finish what we started all that time ago…"