Emerald Forest.

Slowly, the four girls of team RWBY trekked through the Emerald Forest, with Ruby Rose, the charismatic, ecstatic and young team leader on point. The young girl had short, chin-length hair that went from dark-red at the top of her head, fading to scarlet at the tips. She wore a black and red combat dress, with a corset around her waist and her usual, crimson cape wrapped around her, her weapon in hand. Her weapon's magazines had the symbol of the Red Rose plastered on. The massive sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose, was deployed to full scythe mode, Ruby's hands occupying the rear handle and the bolt action handle, which she kept locked with a button attached near the weapon's mechanism.

Following her was her partner and the second of the team's namesake, Weiss Schnee. She wore a strange, snow-white dress and, on top of it, a jacket with the Schnee Dust Company symbol, the Snowflake, on its back. The Heiress kept her eyes open and her hand wrapped around her decorated revolving dust chamber rapier, Myrtenaster's, hilt. Her azure eyes were locked onto the left side of the treeline, where movement continued to be ever-present. Grimm and animals, no doubt. She patted her combat skirt down and murmured"I'm seeing a lot of moving creatures..."

"Grimm, probably." Blake answered quietly. The raven-haired girl had bright amber eyes and wore a very strange outfit, formed of a black item of clothing over a white sleeveless shirt, black bandages wrapped around her hands and thighighs with different shading, going from black at the top, to bright lilac-purple at the end, also bearing her symbol, a black tulip, and a pair of black sneakers. She also had a bow on top of her head. Her hands were clasped around the hilts of her weapon system, Gambol Shroud, a combination of Mistrali weapons and a pistol.

Knuckles cracked and a slight chuckle was heard as the fourth member of team RWBY brought up the rear. A brawler with unkempt, long golden locks of hair and bright purple eyes, the girl wore a brown jean jacket and a strapless bra underneath it, that was yellow and bore her symbol, the burning rose, similar yet different to Ruby's red rose. The girl cocked her shotgun gauntlet pair, Ember Celica, then said "Let'em come. We've faced worse."

"Don't jinx us, sis..." Ruby whispered from the front, her silver eyes locked ahead, at a tower of smoke going up into the sky.

Yang shrugged, then said "What's the worry, sis? We're here to find what the Headmaster needs and walk out afterward. It's been an awful dull mission, so I don't see why some combat won't help us have some fun." to which Weiss sighed, then looked ahead and asked "Come to think of it, Ruby... What did the Headmaster say we should find?" before Ruby looked back and said "Headmaster said apparently a gunship crashed nearby... The Vale ATC caught it just as it was going down... It had no IFF, but the Radar spotted it almost instantly and it vanished just as it appeared. It blinked on, then off."

"Special ops?" Blake wondered. Ruby shrugged and said "Probably... Not sure how, though... Vale ain't got much of an army left."

"And don't you think the IFF would'a blinked once if it was VDF?" Yang mused. Blake shrugged, then answered "Maybe." to her blonde partner. The girl then looked to Ruby and asked worriedly "Should I scout out ahead, Ruby? I'm a bit more stealthy, maybe just enough not to scare the troopers that survived and report to you." to which Weiss muttered to herself "If any survived... Shouldn't they have sent Military instead of us?"

"Weiss." Ruby sighed. She looked to Blake, then told her "At the first sign of trouble, come back..." to which the young woman tilted her head lightly forward, before starting into a silent sprint. Yang walked up, taking Blake's spot and still bringing up the rear, as the rustles around intensified. Yang saw the shady figures of Grimm Beowolves getting closer, as well as maybe an Ursa and a couple of Boarbatusks... The animal-looking creatures, resembling wolves, bears and wild boars, respectively.

Weiss looked to Ruby and said "I'd suggest we take a more defensive stance."

Ruby hummed and said "Yeah, might be a good idea..." looking slightly scared... The Grimm creatures seemed to encroach ever closer. They'd been stalking them for a while, Ruby could tell. The girls kept telling her about the shady-looking creatures moving parallel to them, so of course she was suspicious. This just confirmed it:The things lead'em into an ambush. Probably a pack of beowolves, an Alpha included, with an Ursa and a pair of boarbatusks.

She twitched, watching one of the first creatures emerge from the shadows. The malformed, semi-humanoid dog that was the Beowolf, its bone-white fangs bearing out of its mouth, stained with crimson blood, that of a human, flesh still stuck between the canines and other teeth, growling. Its back was covered in a porcupine-like weave of uneven bone spikes that protruded from its black fur coat and the top of its head had a heavy bone plate, etched with symbols and crisscrossing patterns, like veins, ending in its crimson, angry eyes. Ruby shuddered. These things must've gotten to the poor gunship's crew first...

Its brothers soon joined, led by the bigger, more deadly Beowolf Alpha. Its bone-plate armor was more advanced, more developed. The spikes protruding from its back were larger, bloodied... One of them had a strange, gunmetal green helmet impaled on it. Its chest had a ribcage-like set of armor, its elbows and kneecaps guarded in the same manner, its claws longer than its younger brothers. The two boarbatusks emerged next. Boars with long fangs and boar plate armor that looked like scales against their black fur stood, snarling at the trio... Finally, the Ursa came. The massive, bear-like creature crawled on all four, its spikes even more bloody than the Alpha's.

"Oh, boy..." Ruby swallowed "Looks like they got to the crew first..."

"Shit..." Yang swore, taking a combat stance. Ruby looked back and berated her sister "Language..." to which the Blonde said "Really? I'd be more worried about the things about to kill us, Rubes." as the beowolves danced circles around them, looking for a perfect time to strike. Weiss murmured a short Valeian prayer she'd learnt back home, then drew Myrtenaster, followed by Ruby racking the bolt of Crescent Rose and locking eyes with the Alpha...

Two of its young apprentices snarled, to which he barked sharply, leaning on all fours as well. The duo lurched ahead, moving at high speed, right in Ruby's sector... One of them launched up into the sky, extending its claws with a roar, before... Bolts of crimson lightning struck it, sending it to the floor, torn in half. A strong, rough male voice with a strange accent barked out "OI!" taking the Grimms' attention away from their prey.

The girls gasped and gazed to the left, to see a man clad in an incredible set of heavy armor, standing there and taking aim with a bayonet-tipped carbine, which was linked to his backpack via a pair of cords and its barrel was smoking. His armor was thick, heavily padded but still allowing good mobility. He had two strange prongs protruding from his back, which seemed to the girls' trained eyes as thrusters... A Jetpack!? His armor was painted gunmetal green, with brown and grey stains, as well as the livery and emblem of a strange, unknown regiment. His face was covered by the mask welded to his helmet, a rebreather with a pair of tinted black visor glasses. He also had a sensor suite/communication panel on the side of his helmet, that shined crimson, and his pack also had antennae.

Sitting beside him, Blake had Gambol Shroud drawn, pistol aimed at the Beowolves with a grin. She nodded to Ruby, to which the red girl smiled and nodded back.

"OVER HERE YOU BUNCH OF FLAK-WIPE FERAL BEASTS! I GOT A LAS-BOLT FOR EACH OF YOU!" the soldier barked, kneeling, racking his weapon as it hissed and shouldering it. He watched as the comrade of the beowolf he killed turned about, snarling, then it rushed ahead. The man's eyes were locked down the scope of his weapon and, despite it being unseen, he grinned as he sent a burst of LASER fire into the creature. The rounds impacted its bone-plate armor, punching right through it and making the animal stagger and fall. The man aimed low, into the black fur and shot again... The demon split in two, then vanished.

Another rushed, forcing the boy to draw a second weapon, a pistol with similar cords attaching it to his powered back pack, and aim. He fired from the pistol, a bolt of scarlet power punched through its guts. He proceeded to sweep the other advancing creatures with laser fire, filling the areas adjacent to team RWBY full of energy fire. Six beowolves fell in the first salvo, three more in the next, but the Alpha, Boarbatusks and Ursa remained.

He watched the massive beast advancing toward him as he cut swaths into the Beowolves. The weapons in his hands hissed with steam and heat, barrels burning white. He looked to Blake, then barked out calmly "Take anything that survives on that side! I'm overheated!" to which Blake simply nodded. She ran, jumped up and, with a fluid movement, sent six cuts into a surviving Beowolf, chopping skin and fur off its body.

The soldier hummed as the weapons showed alarm runes. He nodded to himself, slung both on his back and drew a decorated sword from its sheath, located on his back. He flicked a switch and the weapon thrummed to life, its motors sending currents of electricity and fire through its blade. It shined a bright scarlet-orange color as the electrodes transported energy to and fro... Big Bear rushed him fast and hard, roaring.

He looked to his left hand and tapped a button on the palm, knelt and pumped his legs, launching himself up into the sky with an aiding burst from the thrusters, higher than any normal human could jump. He swiveled the blade up and barked out "THIS IS FOR THE BOYS ABOARD MY VALKYRIE, YOU BIG BASTARD!" before slicing down, right down the middle, through the bridge of the alien creature's nose, splitting its bone plate and body in two, the flames of the blade burning through its body faster than it disappeared.

He drew his pistol again and watched as the boarbatusks rushed him, doing their spinwheel trick. He eyed the first one and lead it as it tried to dodge out of the way of his weapon... Then fired. The blade of energy sliced it clean in half. As the other one approached, the boy dodged utilizing his thrusters to dash to the right, before "FOR THE PILOTS, GOOD MEN THAT DIED IN THE CRASH!" thrusting the sword forward and impaling the 'Tusk right in the mouth. It moinked once in surprise, then broke in two.

Standing up, the boy eyed the Alpha Beowolf with a killer look from behind his combat visor. He aimed his pistol as the creature snarled at him, then said "And this is for the Emperor... You Chaos filth." before firing just as the monster rushed him. The creature growled as it covered itself in its thicker bone hide. Lasbolts punched through and cracked the creature's second skin, scratching at the main body, but only angering it. It got ever closer and the weapon overheated again, hissing. The boy lowered the pistol, gripping the sword tightly.

The creature jumped out and a girl yelled at him, but he couldn't hear... He hissed "And this is for the Emperor, you Daemonic bastards." slicing right down the creature's gut, turning about and immediately stabbing it right through the lower jaw, blasting through its head and shearing whatever stood for its brain in half, before throwing it to the floor and firing one more Las Bolt into its head.

He holstered the pistol, then sheathed the sword and looked back toward the four girls, the one which encountered him bearing a wide grin. He walked up to them, then looked down at Ruby... The guy was a head above all of them and clearly lean and mean. The amount of strength needed to carry such a set of carapace armor must've been incredible.

Ruby looked up at him with a blush, then whimpered before he said reassuringly "Stay calm." his voice slightly distorted by the helmet speaker "I'm a human."

He looked to the girls, to see most of them staring at him in stupor. He realized, then said "Ah, right." before wrapping his arms around his helmet. He twisted to the left as the helmet hissed, some O2 escaping from it, before he removed it and slung it under his arm. That didn't help the girls' situation any more. The boy was a handsome bastard. A strong jawline outlined a war-weary, scarred face. He had four claw marks reaching from the left side of his forehead to the bottom-right side of the cheek. A black-ink tattoo of a scorpion resided on the left cheekbone, its long tail wrapping around the side of the eye, stinger reaching just above his brow and he had brownish-green eyes and short, scruffy black hair. His forehead also had a scar from a small suture on the far right, covered by some loose hair.

"Why're you staring at me like that?" He asked, uncomfortably arranging the collar of whatever he wore underneath the Carapace armor, as he locked eyes with each girl. The blonde one on the left seemed to be drooling, her jaw dropped, while the girl on the right stared at him partially in awe. She'd been the one to warn him of her friends being in trouble...

The soldier shifted uncomfortably, before asking "Should we not be moving out of here? I need to report to the nearest airfield to redeploy... And report the deaths of my crew... Emperor rest their souls..." he looked with a distant look at the pluming smoke from his gunship. Ruby was the first to shake off her stupor, then said "U-Uhm... Right... Our condolences for your guys..." sadly. He looked to her, nodded and said "Thank you."

"Uhm... Quick question, dude..." Yang said from beside Ruby. The boy hummed and nodded "Go ahead?"

"Who's this 'Emperor'? You mentioned him twice, but there's no Empire on Remnant... At least not anymore."

"What?!" The trooper barked, his eyes wide with shock. Yang nodded, then said "Yeah..."

Feral world, this Remnant, maybe Feudal, then... Undiscovered, clearly. The boy thought. He sighed, nodded and said calmly "Right... We'll talk more about this somewhere safe. Did any of you call for an evacuation craft?" to which Ruby took out her scroll, thumbed a button and said "Yeah. Now I did." with a smile. She nodded to him, then asked "What's your name?"

"Marcus... Lieutenant Marcus Maelon of the Harakoni Warhawks 43rd Air Drop Regiment, Imperial Guard." The boy smirked proudly, then pounded his chest plates with his right hand "For the Emperor, Death from Above!" to which the girls looked to each-other, shocked at the sudden reveal of the young man's occupation. Yang then asked "Wait... You're a paratrooper? As in, you jump down from aircraft with parachutes?" to which the boy corrected "Grav-chutes. Anti-gravity devices that utilize slight suspension fields to help us land safely on any planet. Parachutes, the cloth items, have been long abandoned by the elite drop shock troops of the Imperial Guard."

He patted the two prongs on his back, making the awed girls stare at the items with awe. "Mine are slightly better in that they can give me a jump boost off a ship or off the ground, slightly. I usually jump from above-orbital heights... But it'd seem that this time, the Valkyrie gunship I flew in didn't allow me to. Crash was rough, but..." He sighed "At the very least I'm alive." before stepping past them and picking up an item that'd dropped out of his pocket. He flicked the cover off it, thumbed a red button on it... And thunder sent a shockwave bursting through the air. He hummed, seeing the smoke plume from his Valkyrie enlarge, then muttered to himself "Rest easy, boys. No filthy thing's gonna touch your gear or your bodies."

He looked back and told them "Explosives pre-set into the Valkyrie in case of a non-fatal crash behind enemy lines. One man lives from it, he's gonna blow up the entire damn thing, just so that the gear and men aboard it don't wind up in the Orks' or, Emperor-forbid, other foes' hands." and he set the detonator into one of his chest rig pockets. The girls just now noticed, on his shoulder, the numbering and Emblem of the Harakoni Warhawk regiment. Imperial Aquila with claws holding a dagger and a Lasgun, with the writing 'Mors Principium Est', 'Death From Above' in Gothic lettering, caught in a scroll-banner below. Below, on a skull, was imprinted the numbering of the Forty-Third in Gothic runes:XLIII.

The sound of a pair of jet propulsion engines resounded from above. The boy looked up and eyed a bulky, fat transport with thin cannards and VTOL capabilities, moving in to land, its charcoal-grey hull standing out in the sky. He sighed, then muttered to himself "Looks like a failed attempt at a good gunship..." before walking to it as it landed. He helped the girls board first, nodding to each of them, then, under his own strength, climbed aboard. He sat down on one of the netting chairs, set his helmet down at his feet and put his hands together, beginning to whisper a prayer.

Upon finishing it, he took out his Hellgun, the weapon specifically made for the shock-troopers and heavy infantrymen like him to use in combat. He checked the power and coolant cords, strapping them in tightly and locking them into place. He murmured to himself "I'm gonna need fresh coolant..." as he set the weapon back into its cradle, took out the Hotshot pistol and repeated the process of tightening and locking the cords, before setting it back onto his armor-side holster. Ruby stared with dumbstruck amazement at the amount of weapons the man carried... The sword in its sheath, placed on his rear armor plate, decorated and incredibly well-designed, that Laser gun and pistol, a strange ballistic weapon(Looked like a 13mm Pistol?!), another sword in some kind of heavy metal sheath and... A FLAMETHROWER. The girl saw the extra gas tanks of the weapon on his hips, two, plus the one in the weapon making it three...

Yang elbowed her sister lightly in the arm, then scolded in a whisper "Not polite to stare, Rubes."

"Look at the gear on him..." She whispered. "A flame thrower, two swords and two laser weapons, as well as that massive revolver pistol. Not exactly something I can keep my eyes off of." to which Yang snickered, then said "Wow, Rubes. Just wow." mockingly. She looked ahead at their other two team-mates, then she shrugged with a smirk. Weiss planted a palm on her forehead, while Blake rolled her eyes and looked to see the man still readying his gear. He seemed calm... Very, awfully calm about his situation, but his eyes said otherwise...

AN:ALRIGHT, So this(I hope) is the last story I'll start until I delete some of my older, abandoned stories, because FUGG I don't wanna mess it up like this. 32 fucking stories. Seriously me. Fuck off.

Anyways, in other news, School's started, I caught a cold, my grandma turned the age counter of her life up to 80 Sunday and I have a fucking nephew at nearly 18. FRIGGEN REALLY. Thank ye, Lord, they're in another city, so I don't have to babysit... Anyways... Onto more important matters of my life right now, like fucking catching up to my classmates...

Also, as a final note, you may see someone new from the RWBY Canon join the crew. She's certainly better than her 'OLDER'(By like... 10 minutes) twin brother in combat and at making friends, she (or a variation of her) has fought in the 100 years' war between LE FRENCH(*INSERT WHITE FLAG FRENCH SURRENDER JOKE HERE*) and YOU WOT M8? Britain some time ago here on Earth, she has blonde hair and Dishwasher1910 has an artpiece of her on his account.

I'll let y'all readers, old and new, figure out who I'm talking about by next chapter, which should, hopefully, be up tomorrow or some time soon. Until then, I'll try to finish some homework because fuck having a cold. See y'all!