"Hello, my name is Ozpin," the voice in my head said. "And we need to get out of this Vault."

In a Remnant ruined by heroes, a young vault dweller starts hearing a mysterious voice in his head. Driven from his home, Ozrick must brave the man in his head, the supernatural horrors of the Wasteland, and his frankly unproductive friends if he wants to be like the true Huntsmen of old. Along the way he'll discover the truth about Team RWBY, punch women, destroy everyone he loves, and die horribly.

Volume One: Patchwork Wasteland

Introduction

— X —

War. War never changes.

When atomic fire rained down from the heavens and ripped humanity apart like silver eyes, no one was surprised. Few people could explain why it happened, but it happened pretty much as everyone predicted. Too many people hemmed in on all sides by the Grimm, with not enough space or resources to go around. No one can really remember the details, and the details wouldn't change anything anyway.

Remnant was nearly wiped of life. A great cleansing, an atomic spark lit by human hands. The Godhammer ripped apart Heaven and Remnant both until there was no functional difference between the world of souls and ours. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth. The only things that walked Remnant after us were the unholy horrors of the Grimm. But without an afterlife anymore, even they grew sparse beneath the dying sky.

But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. The Godhammer shattered the games of the Old Gods, but that was merely prologue to another bloody chapter in mankind's history. Mankind was finally free. The Great and Terrible Wizard had succeeded. But war, war never changes.

Those that survived did so in enormous underground shelters called vaults. But when they emerged to reclaim the world that now belonged wholly to them, they had only the hell of the wastes to greet them. All except for Vault 4. For on that fateful day when the bombs finally dropped 124 years ago, the great metal doors of Vault 4 shut and never reopened. It is here that you were born. It is here that you will train. It is here that you will die.

Because in Vault 4, no one ever enters, and no one ever leaves.

Life in the vault is about to change.