A/N: Bit of a reupload here, changed the first chapter around a lot. That said, here's the second chapter!
8/31 0500 hours RVLT, Moscow System, Outer Belt
The French had forever been masters of blending the stellar battle doctrines. Their ships were lighter than the Russian ten million ton Stalin class Battleships, but heavier than the British India class or Japanese Yamamoto Shi. Their boarding parties were better trained than the British or Russians, but not as well equipped as the Japanese Shiroi Kiba. Their carriers were toys next to the twenty million ton British Superior Class, but still several million tons heavier than the Cruiser Carriers used by the Russians and Japanese.
This meant that man to man, one on one, ship to ship, they usually lost. Fortunately, ship to ship engagements were rare. Instead, the French would fight fleet battles like a giant game of Rock Paper Scissors. Against Russian firepower, they employed their bombers and landing craft, blowing apart the CIWS emplacements then smashing their way into the cannon control rooms and silencing the ship.
The Russian doctrine of "Firepower over all else", as developed by Lord General Ironwood before his promotion to Premier, was extremely effective because of its simplicity. The primary directive of every Russian fleet was "stand off and pound them till they can't shoot back."
This doctrine did rather badly when the Russian fleet came out of hyperspace in the midst of a French fleet preparing to jump themselves.
0700 hours RVLT, Moscow System, Outer Belt
Beyond Grace, the thirty million ton Putin Class Flagship of the Black Fleet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Space Republics, Command Ship of Admiral Schnee, and the heaviest spacecraft ever constructed, was in trouble.
Sixteen boarding craft had made it through the heavily damaged CIWS net, and more were on the way. The Morskaya Pekhota had been in retreat for the past half hour, and several sections of the ship had been opened to space.
Beyond Grace's gunners had added four Empereur-Class French Battleships and two Seigneur-Class Cruisers to the kill tally they kept in the bridge, along with hundreds of smaller craft. However, the four Seigneur's that had managed to close had launched several missile barrages, and many of the railguns were out of action.
Wilhelm Schnee had come to a decision. He reached for his intercom. Broadcasting to the entire ship, he spoke. "Prepare for jump to using experimental drive in twenty seconds."
The entire bridge looked at him like he'd gone mad. The navigational officer was the first to speak. "Sir, with all due respect, if we jump now, the ship will tear itself apart. We've taken too much damage. Additionally, the French fleet is blocking any jump we can make except for the one back to Remnant."
Wilhelm smiled. "Trust me Lieutenant. I'll hold it together."
The Lieutenant's eyes widened. "Sir?"
"Aura."
0319 hours Remnan time, Upper atmosphere of Remnant-5 bridge of fifteenth squadron flagship Mortal Knight.
"Vice Admiral Schnee! Energy Exposure on the planet's surface! Must be nuclear in nature, it's growing too fast to be anything else."
Weiss grimaced. "Bring it up on screen."
The screen went white, then zoomed out, showing what looked like a second sun, centered just off the planets surface.
"Energy expenditure growing exponentially Ma'am. Currently it's equivalent to a 15 megaton bomb, at its current rate of increase will reach our position with the strength of a 35,000 megaton bomb in 5 minutes."
Weiss nearly hissed. "Aura." There was no reason for that much power. Especially not on an agriworld.
Every man or woman on the bridge knew the tone Weiss now used. Heads would roll in the next forty eight hours. Either theirs, or the enemies.
0320 hours RVLT, Summer's Wing
As quickly as it had come, the light in the cabin of the Summer's Wing was gone. Replacing it came others. Jaune glowed inside his tactical gear, white light seemingly emanating from his skin. Pyrrha glowed a deep red. Ruby was surrounded by a carpet of rose petals. Taiyang seemed to emanate light as if throwing shadows off a campfire. CRDL all glowed, staring at themselves in wonder. Ren seemed to fade into the background, never moving or giving off a sign of life. Coco gave off the smell of coffee. The air around Yatsuhashi began to waver, like heat. Fox's eyes clouded over, and he smiled.
Nora, being Nora, managed to speak before everyone else. "I HAVE SPARKHANDS REN!"
Her hands were indeed, giving off small sparks of electricity.
Ren sighed. "Yes Nora, you do."
Nora's smile would have lit up the room, were it not for Jaune's light.
Ruby spoke, somewhat shakily. "I'm going to set us down."
Taiyang nodded, his voice equally shaky. "That seems wise."
0325 hours Remnan time, Mortal Knight
Vice Admiral Weiss Schnee strode through the halls of the Mortal Knight, donning her combat uniform, emblazoned with the Schnee family crest as she went.
"Adjutant, give me an ETA on those drop pods."
The ship's automated information system responded a second later, speaking through her helmet radio. "The first wave will reach the target location in two minutes and fourteen seconds. The target should be engaged by the time you arrive in the second wave, along with the Mortal Knight's armored brigade."
Weiss smiled. Her uniform prepared, she reached her drop pod and stepped aboard. The Marines were waiting in their APC. She gave them a nod and strapped in.
One never got used to drop pods. No matter how many times, the feeling of falling for almost two minutes was disorienting. The rocket brakes which halted that two minute fall were worse.
As YRS regiment 540 stumbled out of their ship in the early predawn light, still giving off their various effects, Taiyang reverted to Sargent mode.
"Alright. What do we have here people? What the hell just happened?"
Jaune spoke immediately. "The enemy nuked Mistral, Ruby's eyes started glowing, everything went white, and now whatever's happening is happening."
Tai winced. "That last part is not exactly helpful kid."
Fox spoke. "I.. I think I'm blind."
Coco looked at him concernedly. "That's usually a fairly cut and dried concept buddy. Are you or are you not blind?"
Cardin glanced upward, then returned his gaze to the clearing they were in. "Whatever Ruby did, it alerted the enemy. There goes our scouting mission, and probably our lives."
As one, their eyes turned to the sky. It was a sight everyone in the galaxy was familiar with. Silhouetted against a black sky, thousands of streaks of light were now falling from the larger ones.
Ruby sighed. "Everyone back in. Whatever happened, there's a brigade up there, at the least."
Then Summer's Wing's front half blew itself apart. The classic tell of a railgun, images on the retina, explained the situation perfectly. The enemy fleet had put a shell in the ship the moment they were away from the damage radius.
They were trapped, with a brigade level element about to land on them via drop pod.
Weiss was halfway to the planet's surface when her shock infantry landed.
Approximately thirty seconds later, a voice crackled through her radio. "Vice Admiral Schnee, the landing sites are secured. No enemy presence in or around enemy ship. The weapons it was designed to carry have been removed. Zeta Company found tracks leading away from the ship to the west. Thirteen hostiles, all but one wearing the standard issue colonial civilian boots. The last is in Royal Stellar Army Marines standard issue."
She smiled. "As I thought, the Aura user was in hiding. They is attempting to escape with family and friends, the targets in civilian issue may not actually be combat personnel. Peruse but do not engage, and activate a homing beacon."
The trooper replied immediately. "Yes Ma'am."
Weiss smiled and spoke into a different radio, which hung from her belt. "Adjutant, change the landing zones to a search pattern in the general direction the tracks are leading." She manipulated the frequency of her neck radio, setting it to broadcast to the entire drop force. "All Companies, LZ's have changed. Link up with your respective elements and begin searching. Those of you assigned to my pod, take care of zeta's instead."
As the rustle of affirmatives confirmed her orders and she sat back, returning to her relaxed posture.
Fifteen seconds later, the rocket brakes on her pod deployed. The pod crashed to the ground, and the men in the half track started up their engine. Weiss moved out the door the instant it opened, looking for the enemy, Myrtenaster drawn. Not a sign. The APC rumbled to life behind her, engine purring like some giant fusion powered electrical panther. This was the BMP-3, with a thirty millimeter autocannon, hundred millimeter gun, and Arkan class antitank missiles. Only the very best of the
USSSR's troops were issued them. As it rolled down the ramp, with six of the ten man compliment riding on it, she hopped aboard.
"Head west, at top speed. When we top that ridgeline, we'll wait for the rest of the brigade to find them."
Standing atop the largest ridge in the whole area, Jaune growled into his scope.
The enemy was following. They had APCs, tanks, and even a bunch of artillery, the forward troops were probably nearing the bottom of the hill. They would break the tree line and become visible in the next half hour. Her force couldn't outrun them, couldn't outfight them, and couldn't hide from them.
The group was very low on morale. He had to change that.
"Ok people, listen up. We still don't know what happened to us, but we do know it means the enemy wants us bad. They want us alive, because they didn't drop a nuke on us. They want us bad enough to drop a brigade just to get us. That means they won't risk shooting us. We have no such reservations. I know none of us besides Taiyang have been in combat before, but it's quite literally do or die here. Get your stuff, get set up, and start capping the bad guys as they show their ugly faces."
The reaction was mixed at best. CRDL did it, immediately and without reaction. They had been increasingly quiet since the destruction of Summer's Wing. His squad, JNPR, smiled those patronizing smiles and got to work. Ren had a makarov laid out behind a log, Pyrrha had her M4 and all her gear on the other side of the ridge, Nora had deployed her Mk19 and its stand, along with a M60 he'd never seen before. CFY was already up on the top of one of the hills, with their guns and Yatsuhashi's rocket launchers laid out. They were focused, all of them coming from veteran families. Ruby gave a little cheer and did her teleporting thing, forcing his eyes to jump across the ridgeline as she distributed her PRTD-43 and FN MAG, that old German rifle bouncing around on her back. Taiyang patted him on the back and smiled, his face drawn up in worry. He had a SCAR-L hanging from his shoulder, and belts of ammo hanging off some low hanging tree branches.
Jaune patted his FN FAL, checked his pistol, and crawled behind a rock.
Zeta Company, still tracking the unknown enemy unit without any armored support, broke the tree line on Hill Fortysix at approximately 0800 hours on the thirty first of August. They were met with a hail of gunfire. Eight men and three women went down in the first engagement, and the enemy sniper claimed another two lives before they were far enough back in the trees to be safe. The cheers of the enemy could be heard as the captain called in the enemy's location.
Weiss was livid. Not only had they dared to return fire, it appeared they were attempting to cover the Aura users retreat.
"Zeta company, this is command. Weapons free. Artillery and Orbital support is available. The brigade is converging on the enemy's location from three sides. Get those bastards to surrender."
She could hear the tightly controlled anger in his voice when he replied, even through the static. By not giving him weapons free earlier, she had murdered those men, and they both knew it. "Yes Ma'am. Artillery, get me a walking artillery barrage from the bottom of that hill. Comms, get on the line with Orbital, and get a circular kinetic strike around their position. Someone get the brigade colors on a projector with a white flag."
Weiss spoke again, smiling at her private joke. "Throw the Schnee crest on the bottom of the colors, the enemy may be aware of my family's reputation."
During the Second World War, a famous Erwin Schnee, technically a great-great-uncle of Weiss's had been attacked under a flag of truce and singlehandedly massacred the entire French delegation.
The captain chuckled into his radio. "Gladly."
She switched her radio to another frequency. "Get me a UAZ. I want to be there by the time the surrender happens."
The driver on the other end of the radio swallowed. "I will try Ma'am."
The artillery started falling a half an hour after the first enemies walked into their firing lines.
Taiyang appeared to have been waiting for it. He turned to Ruby, knelt down to her level, and started talking in her ear.
Fox shouldn't have been able to hear what they were saying. There was an artillery bombardment walking up a hill not five hundred meters from him. He also should not have known what they were doing. Fox was blind and deaf. That said, he had a new sense. Somehow he was totally aware of everything within a mile. It was like having an eye and an ear in every plant and every rock. So of course he heard them.
"Ruby. You're the special one. You have the speed power and caused that light. Go due west until you hit a river that's more than a mile across. Follow that river to the sea. The spaceport is there. I will not see you again. On your own now, you can outrun anything. Go."
Ruby's eyes were wet. She wasn't really crying, but she wasn't not crying either. "Dad I don't want to."
Taiyang sighed and wrapped his arms around her. "Ruby, I love you. Get on a ship, get to Mar Sara, and tell Summer what happened. She's on Mar Sara V. Talk to Hei, you remember where he lives. He owes our family. Take the Mauser."
He reached into his pocket, drew out his wallet, removed all the pictures, and smashed them into the ground under his boots. "This is enough money for essentials. Don't waste it. Make Hei get you a direct flight. Go now."
Ruby hugged him back, and then she was gone. Tai smiled, looking a bit like he had been shot, and turned to the squads. "Alright guys, take a hike in a direction. Let's make these bastards work to capture us."
Fox stood, feeling Ruby tear away from Taiyang and move down the hilltop fast enough to send a gust of wind across the hill he stood on.
There was a battle to fight.
Weiss was just starting to regret her despising to travel by jeep across a planet with no roads when the call came in. "Movement on hill forty six. Enemy is abandoning positions. Cancel bombardment."
She waited as the comms troops did their jobs. "Artillery bombardment canceled. Orbital bombardment cancelled."
"Zeta Company, advancing on hill forty six."
Weiss was nearly thrown out of the jeep as they bounced over a rock, her hand denting the bed.
"Zeta Company has crested hill forty six and is engaging the enemy. Weapons free, shoot to wound." She waited, still keeping a death grip on the side of the jeep. "Bullets appear to be ineffective against all targets."
The jeep rumbled on as Weiss allowed her troops to do their jobs. Four minutes later, the radio crackled out the message she had been waiting for. "Vice Admiral Schnee, mission complete. One target eliminated. Nine captured, four are injured. Enemy has two missing. Eighteen casualties, four dead."
She glanced at her GPS. "I'm five minutes away. Attempt to pursue the other two. Mortal Knight will arrive here within the hour, all nonmotorized troops need to return to their drop pods for pickup."
"Beyond Grace to Katyusha; do you copy?"
The communications officer on the bridge of the Katyusha nearly jumped out of his skin. That was impossible, there was no way another ship could have-
"Beyond Grace to Katyusha; do you copy?"
The man manipulated the keyboard. "Beyond Grace we copy. What is the situation?"
The relief in the voice that replied was palpable. "Lord General Schnee is dead. He left a message for his daughters, and direct orders we were to obey them as if he was the one giving orders."
The communications officer pressed the panic button.
Dear daughters,
The enemy caught us unawares. The USSSR is finished. Earth has gone nuclear, the premier is dead, General Ironwood is in nominal control of what's left. You must not return to Soviet Space. We may not look it, but we are of Ramonov blood. Remember what I taught you about capitalism. Use that knowledge. The British economy has always defeated us, and so desperate times call for desperate measures. Build a Schnee Empire, starting on Remnant-V. Survive the rising and falling of the French star, and there will be much to be gained. I love you both. This ship is all the inheritance I can afford you. Use it well.
With all the love left in the cold heart of a star sailor,
Wilhelm Schnee
P.S. If you love me, save your mother.
A/N Here ends the prologue of The Remnan Age. This was a test project. If you want me to continue this, leave a review. A huge thank you to my very excellent beta /u/TheSweedishMoose. If you are interested in helping beta, shoot me a pm here or on reddit.
Here is a general plan for where I want to take this.
Prologue: Opération Accablant Fidélité
Book 1: The Dawn of Remnant - Weiss
Book 2: The Pocket War- Blake
Book 3: The Six Month War - Yang
Book 4: Aura - Ruby
Book 5: Space - JNPR
Book 6: Peace - Weiss, Ozpin, James Ironwood, Salem, Adam, Tukson
Book 7: Asides
To clarify, the characters are not the only ones mentioned. Each book focuses on it's title, and the those characters I have listed are the protagonists. Also, a warning. These chapters have been fairly light. If I continue this it will get much darker. Topics to be covered include; realpolitik, religion, forced over training, genocide, racism, genetically modified humans, slavery, rape, human breeding programs, mental degradation through dehumanization, PTSD, terrorism on an interplanetary scale, "ethnic cleansing" (modeled after events in Germany and Serbia), and last but not least, as always, main character death.
Feel free to check back here as the story grows, and with it, the list of terrible things I plan to do to rooster teeth's characters.
Many of these won't actually occur, but I put the warnings in with those that will happen so that you stay on your toes.