Hey everyone, I'm back with another chapter.

Been some time since my last update, with what's going on with the world and how it is affecting everyone.

I am fine, my family is fine in terms of health and finance, right now we are just waiting out the proverbial storm that is the COVID-19.

Thank you all for supporting this story, I got some good feedback so far.

Now without further ado, here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or the StarCraft franchise, both are owned by their own respective owners, Rooster Teeth and Blizzard.

"Normal talk"

'Thoughts'

"Telepathic communication/shouting/other"

Chapter 3: First Contact

Location: Solitas, Abandoned SDC Mining Compound

A light blizzard of snow showered over the abandoned SDC mining compound, growing heavier by the hour. The dulling light behind the grey clouds signaling the near eventual transition into the night.

Parked a couple of hundred meters away from the compound is a large convoy of at least twenty-four trucks and dozens of snowmobiles all parked surrounding a large camp of tents that was set up in a few hours. Men and women garbed in thick white coats and some wearing assortments of grey and white armor plating moved in between the vehicles and tents, carrying boxes, sheets, and other supplies to and from the trucks.

While the camp is a hive of activity there is an equal number of individuals wielding an assortment of weapons, each either standing guard around the trucks or patrolling in small groups not far from the convoy. There were also those without weapons or armor, sitting around large heating lamps, boiling pots of soup, or helping with unloading the trucks.

Even fewer are groups of small children, all garbed in thick warm coats and scarfs running around in between the trucks and tents while the adults were working. Laughing and playing as children should.

A lone figure turned away from the large camp to stare down towards the abandoned compound.

Standing at least a head taller than every adult present at the camp is Gunnar Gratt. His most noticeable features is his long rough greying hair, a rough and wizened face that held two hard steel grey eyes as well as a short grey beard that covers his chin, mouth as well as his entire jawline and cheeks.

Gunnar is currently wearing a hoodless snow-white coat over his large physique with the hem of the neck lined with thick white fur. Large grey pauldrons of worn and scratched metal from untold years of combat covered his broad shoulders, further accenting his large frame. Metal vambraces strapped to his large forearms, an armored belt completed with a short grey waist cape and worn armored boots to cover his feet.

Holstered on both sides of his waist are his personal weapons, Eldur and Klaki, his left hand gripping the handle of Eldur. His weapons are two large bearded axes/hammer hybrids each engraved with rune-like engravings on their metal shafts and handles as a unique design.

Gunnar's stoic gaze rested on the mining compound just a hundred meters downhill. Despite the falling snow, Gunnar could clearly see the information he paid for previously wasn't wrong and the SDC mining compound is entirely abandoned.

The buildings were covered in snow, frost, and rust as nature took its toll on them. The cargo trucks that parked around the compound were either frozen over or were in other states of disrepair. Empty cargo holds and containers dotted the compound, all empty and left to the mercy of nature as the rest of the compound.

All this further convinced Gunnar that no one from Atlas or the SDC has been here for quite some time, possibly years since the accident that forced the infamous company to abandon it in the first place. Which means, if the intel was still correct, there is still the Dust deposit within the mine. Enough to support his people for years to come.

Gunnar closed his eyes before taking a deep calming breath, tuning out all the noise coming from the camp behind him.

He is the leader of over two hundred. Families who lost their homes and loved ones, men and women who were cruelly exiled, orphans with nowhere else to go, and the remnants of a once-proud company of soldiers.

The men, the women, and the children behind him all depend on him. They trusted his judgment and followed him this far for ten years. Ten years since that horrible day that forced him and his soldiers into a life of exile and survival.

These were Gunnar's people, his family. But in the eyes of the corrupt upper echelon of Atlas, they were but a clan of murderous bandits and criminals.

For ten hard years, he bore the entire weight of his people's worries and fears. Bore the brunt of the responsibility for their continued survival as well as taken in those who had nowhere else to go over the years.

For ten years as Gunnar's people grew, so did the responsibilities. Gunnar tried his best to see that none of those behind him will be found starving or dying alone, afraid. But with every passing year, he is still cursed with burying those he came to call friends, companions, and family.

With every passing year, Gunnar must stain his hands in more blood just to provide for his people. Just to survive.

Gunnar remembered those long harsh years and what has led him and his people to this very compound. Surviving out in the cold barren wastes of Solitas outside of the Kingdom of Atlas or the walls of Mantle is a cruel death sentence. There is barely any game to hunt, blizzards so cold that a man will die within minutes, little ways of natural shelter or warmth for the freezing nights, and most importantly the numberless Grimm that roam the barren cold wastelands of Solitas.

But with this SDC mining compound and with all the presumably untouched Dust held within, Gunnar can finally see the end of his people's struggles.

"Gunnar!"

"Hey Pops!"

Gunnar's expression softened into a smile as he turned to see two of his closest allies approaching him. "Maranda. Jase."

The first is a woman named Maranda Forest, a dark-haired woman reaching her mid-forties with aging but still youthful features. She stands just a few inches underneath Gunnar's chin, so he is sometimes forced to look down towards her. She is currently wearing her usual combat gear of a tight white coat, white pants, white knee-high winter boots, and a grey cowl.

Slung around her right shoulder is her weapon of choice, Hawk Shot, a collapsible recurve bow with a quiver filled with an arsenal of arrows of various types. Her skills with the bow are second to none and she had saved his life and the lives of others more times then he could be bothered to count.

Walking beside Maranda is his very own flesh and blood. A handsome young man by the name of Jase Gratt, youngest out of the three of them in his early to mid-twenties and the only one who calls him Pops. His only son stood a head taller than Maranda but still comes up short compared to Gunnar's own towering height. Jase has short blonde hair, sky blue eyes inherited from his mother, and that ever-present smile of his. He is currently wearing a white snow jacket with blue padded armor pieces covering his shoulders and forearms, blue and white combat gloves covered his hands, blue cargo pants with white boots.

His son's weapon of choice is currently attached to his back with its handle sticking out from his right shoulder. Fire Fang, a large long sword with a mechanized handle and crossguard built into the steel blade itself. Decorated on both sides of the five-foot-long blade is a single dull grey streak that travels the entire length of the blade.

"How's the place looking?" Jase asked with his trademark smile.

Gunnar gestured back towards the compound with a calm smile. "See for yourself. The place is a bit rough at the moment. But with time and effort, we can truly make this a proper home for our people to settle down in."

Jase's smile grew as he stood to Gunnar's left, looking over the dilapidated compound. "I love the looks of this place already! The buildings are barely holding. The landing pad is covered in snow. And I can see a few trucks down there we could possibly scavenge for parts but not much else. How long was this place abandoned exactly?" Jase asked in a curious manner.

Maranda stood to Gunnar's right, also gazing over the compound. "From the intel we bought, around eight years ago since the accident that forced the SDC personnel and miners to abandon this mine." Maranda answered.

Jase gave Maranda a skeptical look. "I thought Grimm overtook this place. That's why they had to abandon it."

Maranda returned the look with her even stare. "If you were listening to the first time around then you would've known that the Grimm came AFTER the accident, no doubt attracted by all the panicking miners and company personnel. Afterward the SDC managed to sweep the incident under the rug and haven't attempted to reclaim this mine since." Maranda looked back down at the compound. "And with this compound in such a remote place and with no structural defenses, many of the miners never returned home to their families. Reminds me of that day all those years ago." She said with a noticeably somber tone.

Gunnar closed his eyes as he let out a silent sigh. Yes, that day. How could he ever forget.

The miners rioting.

The order to cull the rioters.

The bullet that first flew.

The screams and blood.

The sight of a child holding the still body of her parents.

And what he did at that moment that damned them all to exile.

"Tch!" Jase kicked the snow beneath him, a frown settled on his brows. "Leave it to the SDC to hide something like this from the press. But eight years? That is a long time to leave this place unattended. Pops what do you think about all this?" Jase asked, bringing Gunnar out of his thoughts.

Gunnar gazed down at the compound. "Though this is a site of a tragedy, we shall take it and make this place our own. Our good fortune is long overdue."

His son nodded with a genuine smile. "I like the sound of that. It's about time we settled down somewhere. But from the looks of this place, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Right Pops?"

Gunnar nodded in agreement. "Yes, you are correct. We may have more work ahead of us but we have to save that for tomorrow. It'll be dark soon and a storm is coming, it's going to hit us tonight." Gunnar said as he looked towards the dark clouds above, snow flurrying down noticeably harder all around him.

Blizzards are common in the far north of Solitas, cropping up nearly every other week and could last from a single night to more than a week.

And from what Gunnar could see, this storm will be fierce.

"We'll have to wait until the storm passes over. Jase, how're our supplies looking?"

His son scratched his head. "Last I checked with the Quarter Master, we're fully stocked on nearly everything thanks to our last hit three days ago. We're all set for the storm and for whatever work we need to do afterward." Jase answered. Gunnar nodded, satisfied with the answer. "Maranda, how are our people?"

"Morale is high amongst the soldiers as well as the non-combatants. Everyone is eagerly waiting for your next orders." Maranda answered. Curt and to the point like always.

Gunnar gave a short nod. "Then let us not keep them waiting any longer." Gunnar said as he turned and made his way towards the camp, both his son and Maranda following closely behind.

As he neared the trucks, the nearest soldiers standing guard gave crisp salutes while those nearby gave a welcoming wave.

"Commander Gunnar, sir!" A patrolling soldier saluted in front of him as Gunnar approached her.

Gunnar knew this one, Olivia Olive. She is young, no older than twenty at the least, and recently finished her training with ten others and is now a full-fledged soldier. "At ease Olivia. I need you to spread the message to the squad leaders not on guard detail to gather their squads at the camp's center as soon as possible." Gunnar ordered.

Olivia's eyes widened and vigorously nodded. "Y-Yes, sir! Right away sir!" With a final eager salute, the young woman rushed away deeper into the camp, nearly toppling over a heating lamp in the process and shouting out a quick apology.

Gunnar could hear his son's amused chuckle beside him. "Eager to please that one. Didn't even question your order." Jase commented.

"Funny. Reminds me of a certain young man when he enlisted to be in the same company as his father's." Maranda said, shooting a teasing smile towards the young swordsman.

Jase barked out a laugh in reply. "HA! That was because I wanted to prove to Pops that I'm the best swordsman in all of Solitas! No one can compare to me around these parts and you know it, Maranda!" Jase shot back with a bright smile.

"Careful with that ego of yours Jase. Remember what happened when you challenged me to a duel?" Gunnar said with a grin.

"First off, I gave an open challenge to anyone in our motley family. Second, if I would've known I had to fight you Pops I would've used my extra special Dust that day." His son explained using his fingers to count out his arguments.

"It was only a few years ago when it happened." Maranda corrected, the mirth in her tone is infectious.

Jase snapped his fingers at the woman. "Exactly! I was only twenty! I was young and impressionable! If anything, Pops beating me into the ground that day would border on child abuse!" Jase vehemently explained in a way a child would find idiotic.

Gunnar shook his head with a chuckle. Leave it to his son to bring a good laugh.

"Mister Gratt! Mister Gratt Sir!"

Gunnar turned his head to see a group of six children running and weaving through passing adults towards him. All of them are bundled up in warm coats, scarves, boots, hats, and gloves. Soon all the children gathered in front of him and each gave a happy salute, something that brought a smile to Gunnar's face at their adorable show of soldierly greeting.

And the one leading them all was none other than the self-appointed leader of all the children herself.

"Cadet Millie!" Gunnar addressed the red-haired girl, the oldest out of all of them at the age of ten. "Do you have something important to report?" Gunnar asked in a friendly almost playful tone he uses when addressing the little girl in front of him. The little girl Millie shook her head, dropping her salute but still holding that excited smile of hers. "No sir! We just heard that you are going to announce something important and we want to know what it is!" Millie said as the other children nodded their heads in anticipation.

Gunnar placed his hands at his sides. "Is that right? Well, you and the other children will just have to wait until everyone has gathered."

"Aw…"

"Please sir…"

"We can keep quiet!"

"Pretty please!"

Gunnar chuckled. "I'm sorry. But you all have to wait." That recieved many disappointed groans from the children in front of him. Not one to leave children disappointed, Gunnar leaned closer, beckoning the children to do the same. "I'll tell you what. I have a VERY special mission for all of you." Gunnar said, immediately the children became excited. "What is it! what is it! Oh sorry! What is it, Sir!" Millie asked, correcting herself at the end and trying to hold a serious expression, the other children following her example.

Gunnar chuckled as he knelt down to one knee and beckoned the children to huddle closer. The children excitedly huddled around him, eager eyes meeting his. "I want you all to gather all the families, as many of our people as you can to the center of the camp. You must do this as fast as you can as this is a VERY important mission. Can I count on all of you?" Gunnar questioned, leveling a semi-serious gaze on each of the children in front of him.

Almost simultaneously all the children gave him a salute and excited smiles. "Sir yes sir!"

Gunnar's smile widened before standing back to his full height. "Good! Now carry out your mission! Cadet Millie, you're in charge!"

"Yes Sir! Everyone MOVE OUT!" Millie shouted as she and the rest of the children turned and ran in all directions, laughing and shouting as they went.

Gunnar watched them run off. Still holding his smile. "That little Millie. Always running around playing soldier whenever she can." Maranda spoke in a warm tone.

Jase chuckled. "What do you expect. She grew up around soldiers. Her father used to be a soldier after all." Gunnar's son said, his tone turning slightly somber at the last few words.

Maranda gave a slow sigh, all notion of happiness gone. "I know. I am just glad to see Millie and the other children laughing and playing is all. I just want them to keep on smiling for as long as they can as children. Especially with our lifestyle." Maranda shared her thoughts, her shoulder sagged as if the weight of her age is affecting her.

Gunnar nodded. "That's why we're here Maranda. To give them a chance at a normal life." Gunnar then placed a reassuring hand Maranda's shoulder; one that the aging woman reciprocated by placing her hand on his. "Come, let us make our way."

Gunnar, with Maranda and Jase, made his way through the array of tents towards the Camp center. Along the way they were greeted by soldiers and other members of their people alike. Some gave their greeting while others shared their interests about the gathering.

Gunnar simply motioned for everyone to gather at the camp center, promising to answer all their questions then. Soon enough Gunnar entered the center of the entire camp, an open clearing large enough to fit all his people with room to spare. When Gunnar arrived the center was already filled with over a hundred of his people, men, women, even children, almost everyone is attending.

Soon all eyes were soon on Gunnar. Various looks of anticipation met Gunnar's steel-grey eyes.

Gunnar then stood at the very center of the camp with Maranda and Jase at his side. Thanks to his tall height, Gunnar had no problem seeing how large of a crowd gathered in front of him. Nearly everyone is here, families gathered with one another as the soldiers on attendance stood vigilant around the non-combatants. Gunnar could feel the eager energy in the air as everyone in hushed tones waited for him to speak. A literal sea of eyes stared at his own, all waiting in anticipation at what he has to say.

Gunnar spread his arms. "Everyone! I have brought you all here to these desolate grounds for a reason! One that will shape the future of our entire family!" Gunnar announced, his voice is loud and clear for his people to hear. "We are currently camped in front of a abandoned mining compound once owned by the SDC!" Immediately the entire crowd started throwing choice insults at the infamous company name, even the children were booing. This was expected, especially concerning the amount of faunuses and other ex-miners amongst his people.

Gunnar raised a hand as the crowd immediately started to quiet down. "I feel the same as you do! Our hate with the SDC is justified! We all have suffered by the hands of those corrupt individuals who sit on top of Atlas like self-made kings! Those who in the past sought to drag each one of us down and cast us off to die! BUT WHERE ARE WE NOW!" Gunnar shouted out.

"WE'RE HERE! WE'RE ALIVE!" His people chanted out as one, pumping their fists into the air. This was his people's motivational shout. To remind themselves as well as the others in their large family that they are still alive and well.

Because the best way to spite those who sought to cast them off to die is to survive and live on to the bitter end.

"But let us not forget our way! We have not in the past resorted to this hate to survive! We survived because we leaned on each other! We survived because we confined with one another as kindred spirits! We survived because we are united as a family!" Gunnar shouted out, seeing many amongst the crowd nodding/shouting out in agreement.

He then pointed towards the mining compound far behind him. "And through our sacrifices! Through our shared pain and commitment! We finally found the end of our long road! We have finally found a place to call ours! A place to settle down! A place to call home!"

The crowd cheered once more in celebration. Fists raised high into the air as everyone shouted up towards the grey sky above. People jumped for joy, others hugged one another, some cried. But everyone wore bright smiles. This was the happiest Gunnar has ever seen of his people in a very long time.

"No longer will we be wandering exiles in the cold of Solitas! No longer will we need to worry of starvation, of the cold or of the Grimm! No longer will we risk our lives raiding Atlas's supply convoys or killing loyal soldiers and Huntsmen just to survive! No longer will we live as criminals in the eyes of a corrupt system that dictates us so!" Gunnar then raised a clenched fist. "For over ten years I swore to you all and to all those we have lost that I will find a new life for us all! The life that we wished, not for ourselves, but for our children and their children's children!"

He then waved his hand to the side. "After ten long and arduous years, I! Gunnar Gratt! Can finally uphold the promise I have given to you, all those years AGO!" The crowd roared, his family crying out in happiness.

Gunnar cannot blame them. After so long, after losing so much, they are finally rewarded with this great fortune.

However, there is still one task left to do before they could even begin to settle into their new home.

Gunnar raised his hand for silence. Almost immediately the cheering died down. "I share your excitement, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us! Our new home is not yet ready for us to move in yet! There are still unknown dangers lurking within that mine and we must remain vigilant!" Gunnar said as the crowd heard his words.

He could see it in their eyes. They knew exactly the dangers he was talking about. "The mines have been abandoned for eight years, long enough time for any number of Grimm to move in and occupy the mine! For this, I will be taking our most experienced soldiers along with Captain Maranda into the mine to clear it out!" Gunnar said, already seeing uneasy eyes from amongst the non-combatants. The soldiers on the other hand were wearing expressions of serious resolve, especially amongst the older veterans, Gunnar could pick out amongst the gathered soldiers. Though Gunnar had lost many from his original company throughout the years, those that still remain never wavered in their duty to protect their people.

He will need them for tomorrow's expedition.

"But that is for tomorrow. Tonight there will be another storm. No doubt many of you have already noticed." As Gunnar said those words many amongst the crowd gave small sighs of relief. Many of whom have close relations with the soldiers Gunnar will be bringing tomorrow.

Gunnar swept his gaze over the large crowd. "So tonight rest well and eat a warm meal! Tomorrow we shall claim our new home! Dismissed!" Gunnar shouted, earning a cheer from his people in reply.

Soon the crowd quickly dispersed. Soldiers rushing to their posts, families, and others rushing to the supply trucks and tents to prepare for the night ahead.

Gunnar himself turned to his two closest companions. "Gotta say Pops, you always know how to rile everyone up." Jase said, his eyes holding his usual mirth.

Gunnar crossed his arms with a smile. "Our people needed encouragement. Especially since I'm asking many of our most seasoned soldiers to risk their lives tomorrow." Gunnar then uncrossed his arms and turned back to look at the camp in its entirety. He saw fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, long time companions sitting with smiling faces, and eating warm meals around heating lamps and campfires.

Everyone is enjoying what time they have with their loved ones. Temporarily forgetting about their horrid past and current strife's if only for a moment.

Amongst the smiling faces were some of the soldiers, his soldiers.

Gunnar couldn't help but reminisce the harsh past and what he put his soldiers through. His original company, loyal and honorable soldiers of Atlas, gave up their futures and risked their lives in following him since that day ten years ago. They have all lost friends, lovers, brothers, and sisters in arms over the arduous years. Every death weighed heavily on Gunnar's shoulders, their names and faces are still seared into Gunnar's very thoughts and dreams. But thanks to those that remain, Gunnar always found the strength to carry their people forward to the promised home that he swore to find.

And now they have found it but must lay down their very lives for one last mission.

The very least Gunnar could do for these soldiers who risked everything to carry their people this far is make sure no one else dies tomorrow.

Gunnar felt a hard tap on his arm, turning around he saw Jase giving him a closed smile. "Don't worry Pops. We will all be fine. We made it this far and not even a mine filled with Grimm could turn us away now." Jase said in an encouraging tone.

Maranda patted Gunnar's left arm, earning his attention. "Everything will be fine. Everyone knows what's at stake. For now, you should take your own advice and get a good night's sleep. It's already dark." Maranda said as she turned away and made her way towards the surrounding tents.

Now that Maranda said it, Gunnar did notice how dark it had become. The already dull grey skies turned an even darker shade of grey bordering on black as the only thing illuminating his very surroundings were the heating lamps as well as the light from the dust lamps hanging from each of the surrounding tents.

Gunnar heard a telltale yawn from the only other person accompanying him. "Well, I'm getting something to eat before hitting the sack. You coming Pops?" His son offered.

Gunnar shook his head. "Go Jase. Enjoy your meal. I believe Daria is on third watch tonight." Gunnar said with a knowing smile.

That earned a laugh from Jase. Never the one to be embarrassed or ashamed with his attempts at womanly exploits. "You know me all too well Pops! Have a good night!" And with those parting words, Jase jogged towards the nearest tents and soon disappeared from sight.

Gunnar let out a soft breath of air as the frigid air helped to cool his thoughts. His people were in high spirits, his soldiers were ready, and he has some of the best companions a man as old as he could ever ask for.

Much is as stake here. But Gunnar and his people have not survived this long on luck and good fortunes alone. This is but the final hill they have to climb before they can truly settle down at the top.

And once they have finally settled down, then and only then will Gunnar put away his weapons for good.

With those final thoughts Gunnar made his way over to the nearest cooking pot, one surrounded by both soldiers and friendly faces alike.

They welcomed him with open arms and happy smiles as he dug into a warm meal.

Teal was sitting in one of the many trucks surrounding their camp, her Atlesian Rifle resting on the dashboard in front of her and special thermal vision binoculars in hand. The interior of the truck was both illuminated and heated by the small heating lamp on the dashboard near her rifle.

It has been three hours since her commander's rousing speech, one she personally thought was one of his best. She is currently part of the first watch alongside five other squads making sure nothing that goes bump in the night catches them unawares.

Since they were the first watch of the night, each squad of ten soldiers were further divided into pairs and were given posts surrounding their main camp. Teal herself was partnered with her long-time friend Olivia, who is currently away to take a piss break somewhere.

Teal brought the binoculars up to her eyes, trying and failing to peer into the literal STORM of snow that was falling on them tonight. But like the other hundred times she gazed out into the storm, all she sees is a world of black and no warm-bodied figures that her special binoculars can pick up on.

With a foggy huff she placed down her binoculars for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past hour.

"Can't see crap out here." Teal whispered to herself. Night watch is always the worst, especially when a bad blizzard hits. Vision is reduced to mere feet, it is cold as hell even with aura, and they always run the risk of being attacked by roving packs of Grimm.

But this is what she signed up for when she became a soldier. She and every one of her friends who wanted to make a difference for their people.

*Krrt!* "This is -zzzzt- Squad Lea – zzzzt- all soldiers on watch report. Over." If the cold wasn't enough, the storm is messing with their comms again. Simply perfect.

"This is Wa -zzzzt- One. All clear he -zzzt- . Over."

"Watch Two. Nothing on -zzzt- Over."

"Watch Fo -zzzt- r. We're clear. Over."

"Watch -zzzt- Everything's clear ove -zzzt-. Over."

Teal picked up the radio from the cupholder beside her and thumbed the side button. "Watch Five here. All clear. Nothing in sight. Any word from the recon squads? Over." Teal asked, wondering what the squads sent to check and watch over the abandoned mining compound are up to.

"Watch Five. Can -zzzt- repeat -zzzzt- Over." Teal frown in frustration. "I say again! All clear! Any word from the recon squads!? Over!" She repeated, nearly shouting into the radio.

"-zzzt- Recon Squads haven't reported -zzzt- yet -zzzzt- Storm is interfer -zzzzt- with comms. Squad's six through te -zzzt- will switch out with us within the next hour. -zzzzt- Over."

"Copy."

"Copy -zzzt-"

"Copy tha -zzzt- ver."

"Copy. Over and out."

"Copy." Teal replied before dumping the two-way radio back into the cupholder. She then stared out into the blizzard, her very mind slowly being killed by the sheer boredom.

*THUNK!*

Teal's head nearly hit the roof of the truck as she scrambled for her gun. She brought the rifle to bear, only to see her soon-to-be-dead friend doubled over laughing outside from the passenger window.

"What the hell Olivia!" Teal shouted at the still laughing woman. Olivia, still coming down from her laughing fits, opened the passenger door, the frigid snow outside invading the truck momentarily before she sat into the passenger seat and closed the door.

"Hooo… You should have seen your face, Teal. It was golden!" Olivia laughed out as she placed her own rifle on her side of the dashboard before taking off her beanie, revealing two floppy dog ears.

Teal gritted her teeth in anger before roughly punching the still laughing faunus's shoulder, earning her even more laughter. "Shut up! We're on night watch and it's pranks like the one you just pulled that will get you shot!"

Olivia came down from her laughing high. "You wouldn't shoot me right Teal? I'm your best friend!" Olivia asked with a stupid grin on her face.

Teal returned the smile with a scowling glare before turning away and bringing her binoculars up to her eyes. "Whatever… We're on duty so keep a lookout."

Olivia gave a exaggerated sigh. "Fine. But it's so boring and cold. Plus there's nothing out here but snow, penguins and more snow." Olivia complained as usual.

Olivia placed down her binoculars, once again seeing nothing but pouring snow. "Well tough luck. We're stuck here until the next watch relieves us in the next hour. So until then use those eyes of yours, you probably see better through this damn storm than these cheap binoculars."

Olivia raised a single eyebrow at her. "What?" Teal asked in a clipped tone.

"Your pretty grouchy tonight. Care to share?' Olivia asked.

"It's my time of the month." Teal simply said, earning her a grimace from her partner. "Oof… do you need-"

"No. Already have it handled."

"How?"

"Tissues."

"Ah… I'm guessing the cold is not helping?"

"Nope. Not one bit." Teal said through gritted teeth, once more bringing up her binoculars.

"Yeah the cold tonight is especially freezing. Luckily, everyone has their aura's unlocked or otherwise we all be frozen solid by now." Olivia said as Teal simply hummed in agreement. Like her, Olivia and the other soldiers, everyone in their large family has their auras unlocked, from the children to the elderly, no exceptions.

This was done out of complete necessity than anything else. Out here miles away from the Kingdoms, commodities such as hospitals, hot showers and tampons are basically non-existent, any injuries or sickness could very well be your last.

Aura negates those problems and increases chances of survival by leaps and bounds. Commander Gunnar made it mandatory for everyone to receive both aura and basic training on how to utilize it and further training for any active combatants and recruits.

Because in the end of the day, survival is all that matters. Atlas's laws of not unlocking aura for civilians can take a dive into a freezing river for all she care.

"Hey Teal look what I got~"

Teal placed down her binoculars and saw a still smiling Olivia holding a bottle of alcohol. Not just any bottle, a bottle of hard Atlesian Vodka.

"Olivia did I ever tell you how much you're my favorite person right now?" Olivia's smile widened even further as she held up two small metal cups in her other hand. "I love you too Teal."

Handing over a cup, Teal watched as her now most favorite friend poured the contents of the bottle into her cup before filling her own.

Teal raised her cup; Olivia matched her gesture. "Here's to us." In a single motion Teal drowned the contents of her cup in one go, feeling the alcohol burn down her throat.

"Fwooo… Now that is what I needed! Where did you get this?" Teal asked, already feeling the alcohol warming her body.

Olivia, just finishing her own cup, gave a squeamish expression from the alcohol. "Ack! *Cough!* swiped it from supply on my way back." The faunus answered, offering the bottle to Teal.

Teal gave her friend a skeptical look as she took the offered bottle. "Really? You went all the way to the other side of the camp to take a piss?" Teal questioned as she poured another drink for the both of them.

Olivia nodded as she brought back her now filled cup. "Yeah. I felt like it. Also no one is going to miss one bottle." Olivia said, bringing the cup to her lips.

Teal held the skeptical look. "Wouldn't the Quarter Master find out? You know he's a stickler about resources."

If Olivia was worried then she either didn't show it or the liquid courage was already taking effect. "Like I said -*Cough!*- no one is going to miss one little bottle."

Teal shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever you say." She said before drowning the contents of her cup.

Olivia reached for the bottle until Teal pulled it out of her reach. "One last cup. We're still on night watch. Last thing we need is give the next pair a show." Teal said, slowly pouring her friend her last cup.

Olivia laughed. "And why not? You'll might finally get laid if you do! God knows you need it." Olivia jabbed as she brought her cup to her lips.

Teal scowled at the faunus sitting next to her. "Says the one who's into men three times her age." Teal jabbed back with a point of her finger.

Her friend choked, coughed and nearly spat out what alcohol was still in her mouth. Her face flushed with embarrassment. "I do not! I just so happen to like men who are experienced!" Olivia argued, her cheeks blushing rosy red.

Teal knew Olivia and all her little buttons to tease her with. She gave her friend a knowing grin as she slowly poured herself her own drink. "Yeah and how's that working out for you? I don't see the commander plowing you into snow just yet."

As predicted the dog faunus lit up and spluttered like a lit firework before shooting Teal a scathing glare. "I'll have you know-"

*THUMP!*

The truck suddenly went silent as Teal looked out the front window to where she heard the noise. "Did you hear that?" Teal asked in a concerned tone as she placed her cup down into the cup holder while simultaneously reaching for her rifle on the dashboard.

Olivia nodded her head, rifle already in hand. "Yeah sounded like something hit the truck. Could it be hail or a lump of snow from the truck's roof? You know how snow sometimes falls from the truck's roof right?" Olivia asked, sharing her own speculations of what they just heard.

Teal shook her head as she tightened her grip on her rifle. "We ain't moving Olivia and it is sure as hell ain't hailing out there." Teal then pulled the bolt on her rifle, chambering a round. "Call it in just in case."

Olivia nodded as she grabbed the radio and thumbed the button. "This is Watch Five to Squad Leader Rogue. We think something's out here, permission to check over?" Olivia reported as she released the button.

Krrt! "This -zzzzt- Squad Leader Rouge. Per -zzzzt- granted but exercise caution."

Teal shared a look with Olivia before her friend spoke into the radio. "Copy that. Watch 5 out."

As Olivia pocketed the radio and grabbed her rifle, Teal did a quick check of the gadget on her left arm.

An Atlas Collapsible Ballistic Shield. A mecha-shift shield that is both portable and easy to use. It saved her life on many occasions. Half the soldiers in their family were trained to use one, it's used as a defensive measure against packs of charging Grimm and to give them the edge against Atlas soldiers, droids and Specialists when they attack their supply trucks.

The story goes that their family got lucky on one raid years ago as the trucks contained enough ammunition, weaponry, and other gear that their soldiers are now using to this day. The shields also came with one of the trucks, around a hundred are now in use from what Teal understands.

She also understands that the shield she now has attached to her left arm used to belong to her predecessor. The numerous scratches, either buffed out or left as it is, tells a story of harsh use. Nothing is wasted in their family, everything is either used for other means or handed down.

After checking her shield, Teal placed one hand on the door handle as the other held her rifle.

This was it. Just a simple survey of the surroundings and possibly find whatever made the noise. If they run into Grimm, both Olivia and Teal can retreat and call for back up.

After all, survival is all that matters. It was beaten into them by their superiors.

Teal looked over to Olivia and saw her finishing the checks on her rifle. With a shared nod, Teal placed her hand on the door handle and pushed it open.

CRASH! "AAAAAAH!"

Teal had no idea what happened. One moment she was opening the door and Olivia opening hers then suddenly their entire world suddenly flipped on its axis.

Teal cried out in surprise as she fell back off her seat, losing her grip on the door handle as the entire truck seemed to flip onto its side with a horribly loud crash and groan of metal. She heard Olivia also cry out in surprise as Teal's back crashed into Olivia, silencing the faunus as they both crashed onto the passenger door below. Loose items rained down onto Teal as she narrowly dodged the Vodka bottle as it bounced and spilled it's contents all over the passenger door now ground.

Fortunately, the heating lamp survived, laying just beside Teal's head and warming the one side of her face with an almost unbearable amount of heat as such close proximity. If the lamp was broken, especially with all the spilled alcohol, then things will get very warm very fast.

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!" Teal all but screamed out. Her rifle laid haphazardly across her chest, her legs dangling above her as she stared up towards and out the driver side window now above her. She then felt a pair of hands pushing her aside, basically shoving her into the sideways dashboard and passenger footrest.

"Teal! Are you okay!?"

"Yeah! You!?"

"I'm fine! Now get off me! You're crushing me and my hair is getting wet!" Olivia shouted.

Teal struggled to move off of Olivia, something made near impossible due to the small amount of space she has to work with within a truck flipped onto its side. Her right leg kept kicking the truck's manual stick and her back is positioned in a way where her butt was against the passenger seat and her back is arched uncomfortably against Olivia.

As Teal managed to shift herself off Olivia, she searched for the radio, finding it in a pool of spilled alcohol that Olvia is now soaking her hair in, much to the girl's displeasure.

Teal picked up the radio and thumbed the button. "This is Teal! Something hit us! Our truck is flipped over and we're trapped! We need back up!" She then released the button.

"THIS IS -zzzzt- ! SOMETHING ATTACKED -zzzzt-"

"- A THING GOT JASON!-"

"-HELP! WE NEE- OH GOD! IT'S COMING RIG-zzzzt-"

"-ELP ME! IT'S -zzzzt- DRAGGING -zzzzt-"

"THIS IS SQUAD LEADER FEDRICK! WE'RE UNDER ATTAC-"

"SQUAD SEVEN RETREA -zzzzt- SQUAD SE-"

"SQUAD LEADER ROGUE IS DOWN! I NEED -zzzzt-"

"-WE NEED BACK UP! I REPEAT! WE NE- SHHRRAAAA-zzzt-AAAA-zzzzt-AAAAA-" *Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…*

Through the chaos of noise coming out from her radio, Teal can hear the muffled sound of gunshots both coming through the radio and outside of the truck. What was more worrying were the muffled screams, both human and inhuman.

"A Grimm attack!? Now!?" Olivia exclaimed in a frightened tone.

Teal looked at her friend. There was no time to lose. "Olivia! We need to get out of here and-"

SCRUNCH!

Teal's eyes widened as three scythe-like blades erupted from the driver seat above, long and wickedly sharp and seemed to curve at a joint, like nightmarish claws. The blades flexed before another set of sharp blades tore through the truck right next to the first set.

It was at this point Teal scrambled for her rifle, struggling to hold it properly in her current position. Soon an ear grating sound of screeching metal shook her to her very core as both sets of claws slowly but surely tore and pried open a hole where the driver seat used to be. Whatever was out there nearly tore the truck in two as the bladed claws darted in and out of the hole's edges, violently tearing through the metal works of the truck's underbelly as if it was made out of cardboard.

The confines of the truck were immediately invaded by a cold gust of wind from outside, snow, and freezing winds poured through the widening hole just above the shell-shocked Teal and the equally silent Olivia. Teal herself shakily flipped off the safety and trained her rifle on the large hole as she heard and saw Olivia's rifle to her left, also pointing at the hole.

Soon the bladed claws stopped, the only noise that could be heard were the howling winds coming outside the hole. Both Teal and Olivia didn't dare to speak much less breathe, they remained silent as Teal steeled her nerves and rested her finger on the trigger.

Soon the previous pair of scythe-like claws clutched both sides of the hole as something made its way into the truck.

Teal's eyes widened; sheer terror ran down her spine at what she saw.

Piercing through the dark confines of the truck's interior are two glowing blood-red eyes staring down right at her. Those burning red eyes were attached to the most horrifying creature Teal has ever laid eyes on. It's massive elongated head covered in smooth brown carapace slowly pushed through the disproportionally small hole, it then brought it's head down near enough for the light of the lamp to show more of it's nightmarish face.

"Ssshhhhhraaaaa…"

Teal's breathing stopped as the Thing's bottom jaw split in half to reveal a lipless, drooling maw of needle-sharp fangs. It's burning gaze stared into Teal's very soul. She could not look away much less blink as vicious drool from the Thing's open maw spilled onto her jacket.

*Cha-Chak!*

Suddenly the Thing snapped it's gaze away from Teal and right at Olivia, her gun pointed directly at the Thing's face with shaking hands.

The Thing gave a loud hiss.

Olivia screamed and pulled the trigger.

*TATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!*

"SSHHRAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Bullets pelted the Thing's face as one of it's eyes burst with blood, the sudden flashes from the gun's rapid discharge nearly blinded Teal but also shook whatever shock was out of her system. Immediately Teal aimed her gun at the Thing's large head and pulled the trigger, adding her own firepower with Olivia's.

"SSSHHHHRRRAAAAAAAAA!" The Thing reared it's head back as the bullet's from both their rifles continued to pelt the thing's massive head. The bullets actually ricocheting off the carapace covering the Thing's head while many of their bullets hit the creature's exposed flesh, soon making the Thing bleed.

The Thing thrashed about, shrieking in the throes of pain as the entire truck started to rock violently with the creature's thrashing. Suddenly the Thing brought it's head down, it's maw opened wide as it dove through their bullets and directly towards Olivia.

Teal kept firing at the exposed side of the Thing's head as it bit down on the barrel of Olivia's rifle, nearly swallowing it. Teal for her part kept screaming in terror as she kept pouring bullet down the thing's throat to seemingly no effect. Immediately the Thing bit down and literally chomped off the entire barrel of Olivia's rifle, rendering it useless.

The Thing pulled back before spitting out the barrel in it's mouth as it let loose a blood curling roar directly into their faces. Blood profusely bled from it's open maw and countless bullet wounds like a broken tap, spilling all over Teal's and Olivia's faces.

It's one remaining eye glared hatefully at Olivia before diving straight for the frightened faunus. Teal, with only seconds to spare, jammed herself right back on top of Olivia and raised her left arm, extending her shield.

*THUMP!* "SHHRRAAAAAAAA!"

The Thing roared as Teal held against it's overpowering weight. Her fully extended shield covered her entire upper body as it was the only thing between her and the thing trying to kill them.

"TEAL WHAT DO WE DO!?" Olivia screamed as the Thing continued to scrap and bash it's head against Teal's shield. Teal couldn't think of anything, her rifle is empty and was jammed between her chest and shield, their grenades would be downright suicidal, and Teal didn't want to try her luck using her knife against this thing.

Teal looked around, trying to see if she could reach for the radio to call for back up until her eyes laid on the half-filled Vodka bottle and the heating lamp laying in the pool of alcohol.

Suddenly she has an idea. "OLIVIA! GET THE BOTTLE! I'LL GET THE LAMP!"

Immediately Olivia's arm shot out and grabbed the bottle, Teal moved the shield out of the way as Olivia smashed the bottle on the Thing's face, shattering its contents all over the Thing's head.

The Thing let loose another roar as it started smashing it's head against Teal's shield with even more vigor, crushing Teal and Olivia under the force of it's assault.

Teal, struggling to free her right hand, managed to slip her hand from underneath her shield and desperately reached for the lamp.

"SHRAA!" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Teal screamed out in pain as the Thing bit down onto her arm, seeing it poking out from the safety of the shield. Her aura visibly flared as the Thing bit down even harder and started jerking it's head violently, nearly throwing Teal around the confines of the truck. Teal's aura held but her arm feels like it's being crushed in a vice and nearly dislocated. She could FEEL her bones bending under the thing's powerful jaws as she desperately tried to wrestle against the Thing's hold on her.

However, through the pain, Teal saw her chance. She immediately collapsed her shield before grabbing her spent rifle in her left hand. She then pressed the barrel against the Thing's remaining eye.

The Thing saw what she was doing as it suddenly released her arm. Her bluff worked!

With her arm now free, Teal quickly grabbed the heating lamp and swung full force directly at the Thing's face, just as it dove down to tear into her.

SMASH! "SHHRRAAAAAAAAAA!"

The effects were immediate. The lamp shattered all over the Thing's head, igniting the fire Dust held within as the alcohol covering it's head immediately caught fire, engulfing the Thing's entire head in roaring flames.

"SHHRRAAAAAAAAA!" The Thing roared, thrashing around as the fire continued to burn it's face. Teal extended her shield to protect her and Olivia from the flaming monstrosity.

Suddenly with a horrible wrenching sound of bent metal the Thing pulled itself back out the hole completely, it's roars and the light from it's ignited head can still be heard and seen.

Teal wasted no time before collapsing her shield and ripped off the empty clip of her rifle before slapping in a new one. She pulled the chamber back before pointing the rifle at the front window. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Teal shouted as she sent a single burst of bullets into the front window, shattering the glass.

With their escape now clear, Teal quickly crawled and squeezed her way out of the truck through the open window. She stood and quickly turned around to pull Olivia out from the truck.

"LET'S GO!" Teal urgently shouted as she pushed Olivia in front of her before the both of them started running into a dead sprint through the parked trucks and towards the camp. Teal didn't dare look back, too afraid to see if the Thing is coming for them or not.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING! THAT WAS NOT A GRIMM!" Olivia hysterically screamed as they continued to run in between the trucks.

Teal didn't answer, all that was on her mind is to get as many guns between her and that THING as possible. As they quickly exited the maze of trucks Teal finally laid eyes on the camp.

Fire raged uncontrollably throughout the camp. The pitch-black sky gave way to the bright amber and orange glow of the fires, screams of the frightened and dying could be heard amongst the gunshots, figures both human and inhuman darted between the tents or fell upon one another.

Their camp was burning.

Teal stood shell shocked at what she is seeing. But she was soon shaken out of her shock by Olivia. "Teal! There's something behind us!" Olivia said in a frightened tone, her eyes directed at something behind them.

Teal looked behind her but saw nothing. Nothing but falling snow and the pitch-black darkness surrounding their burning camp.

Then she heard it. Through the roaring fire behind her, through the screams and shouting of their people, she heard what sounded like a roaring avalanche all around her accompanied by a chorus of shrieks too inhuman to belong to any beast or even Grimm.

Then out of the darkness, they came. A tide of tooth, claw, and glowing eyes. Teal had no chance to scream as they fell upon her.

"SSHHRRAAAAAAAA!"

"RAAGH!" Gunnar roared as he broke the deadlock and slammed Eldur's axe blade into the face of the monstrous serpent that towered before him. The blade bit deep but the creature still lived, roaring out in pain as Gunnar quickly released his hold on his weapon.

As the serpent monstrosity thrashed it's head in pain from the weapon still embedded in it's head, Gunnar gripped his other axe, Kalki, with two hands and swung full force at the serpent's head.

*CRACK!* "SHRRAA!"

With a bone-crushing strike, Kalki's hammer smashed the massive serpent into the ground. Gunnar then spun Kalki to its bladed side and swung full force down onto the monster's head. The axe came down like an executioner's blade, cracking through carapace and slicing halfway through the serpent's head stopping at the bone. The Serpent let loose another pained roar before Gunnar quickly wrenched the axe out and brought it swinging down two more times onto the serpent.

By the third hit the serpent stopped moving, only the occasional twitch of it's scythe-like claws were noticed. Gunnar wretched Kalki out of the creature's head in a spray of blood before doing the same with Eldur, crimson red blood stained both of his axes.

"Is the monster gone?"

With both axes in hand Gunnar quickly turned to the two children coming out of the tent behind him, their frightened eyes grew wide as they saw the serpent's still bleeding corpse. "Don't worry, the monster can't hurt you!" Gunnar said as he tightened his grip on his axes. "We must go! Stick close to me! No matter what happens don't leave my sight!" Gunnar shouted.

"W-What about mommy! The monsters took mommy!" The smallest asked with a frightened expression.

Before Gunnar could speak, the tent behind the children was suddenly torn aside as another monstrous serpent appeared with a bellowing roar.

The children screamed as the monster raised it's left claw. Gunnar quickly activated Kalki, it's runic engravings glowing bright blue, before throwing it full force at the serpent. The axe spun through the air before hitting the dead center on the creature's chest.

*CRACK!* *CRACK!* *CRACK!* "SHRRRAAAAA!" The monstrous serpent roared as it's body is then suddenly encased in a prison of ice.

Gunnar then flicked his wrist as his vambrace and the handle of Kalki glowed bright purple. Suddenly the axe dislodged itself from the prison of ice and flew back into Gunnar's open hand.

The ice will not hold for long. He quickly pointed his axe towards the camp center. "RUN! I'll follow you!" Gunnar urgently said to the children. Already he could see the ice breaking as the serpent managed to free one of it's deadly claws.

"RUN! NOW!" Gunnar shouted as the two children scrambled onto their feet and ran. Gunnar followed closely behind them, making sure to slow his speed to match theirs.

Gunshots and screams rang all around them as the camp burned, illuminating the horrible events that are now occurring for all to see. Accompanying the noise are the roars of an untold number of those damned serpent monstrosities.

In all of Gunnar's years, he has never seen anything as nightmarish as those serpents. The Grimm despite their appearance looked similar to the animals that populate this world or mythical creatures of children's stories.

But these serpents. Gunnar can say with complete and horrifying confidence that these THINGS are not Grimm, nor any creature or beast Gunnar was familiar with.

They were something else entirely. Never before seen. And that's what scared him.

"AAAAAAH!" The children screamed as a serpent crashed through a tent from their left and into their direct path, knocking over and shattering a heating lamp that set the demolished tent on fire.

"HELP ME, COMMANDER! HELP ME!"

Gunnar was the first to notice a soldier held by the shoulder in the Serpent's fanged maw. The soldier desperately reaching out to Gunnar with his free hand as blood seeped through where the pauldron was pierced by the serpent's fanged teeth and soaking through the fabric of the soldier's coat. The creature eyed Gunnar before darting in the other direction, it's captive still desperately screaming for help in the distance.

Gunnar wanted to desperately give chase. To rescue the doomed soldier. But the children in front of him took priority, he can not abandon them.

"KEEP MOVING! DON'T STOP!" Gunnar shouted over the chaos as he pushed the children once more into a run. The children ran as fast as they could, the smallest one crying and calling out for their mother.

Along the way, Gunnar had the horrible opportunity to view his immediate surroundings. All he saw were burning tents, soldiers shooting at towering serpents, others being dragged away by the vicious serpents, and many more running around in complete panic before being set upon by the very monsters they were trying to run away from.

And the bodies that were left on the ground. Some of which were soldiers, too many were those who could not fight back.

A scant few of those he saw noticed him and ran to join him in the vain hope of surviving or calling out to him for help.

Most of those who came to him were immediately set upon by serpents when their backs were turned and dragged away screaming. As for those who called out to him, they were either dragged away before Gunnar could do anything or Gunnar could not afford the risk of leaving his charges.

What was once just Gunnar and the two children quickly became a small group of four soldiers and three more of their people needed escorting. Two more children and an elderly woman.

"KEEP MOVING! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" Gunnar urged from the rear of the group. The soldiers covered both flanks, pacing themselves with the four children and the elderly woman who is desperately trying to run as fast as she can.

Suddenly the woman fell onto the ground with a pained yelp. "Grandma! Grandma!" The entire group came to a halt as one of the children, a young boy, ran back to the fallen woman.

The soldiers quickly set up a defensive circle, rifles at the ready with shaking hands and frightened faces. "Get up! We have to keep moving!" Gunnar shouted at the woman in an urgent tone.

"I can't! My leg! Just get my boy and the children to safety!" The old woman said, waving her hand for them to move on.

"Grandma no! Get up!" The same child cried out. Desperately pulling on the old woman's arm, the other children huddled closely nearby.

One of the soldiers, a young man, quickly slung his rifle over his shoulder. "SIR! I'll carry her! Just kee-"

"LOOK OUT!" Gunnar shouted as he shot forward and shoved the soldier to the side before barely blocking the claw that was aimed to take the soldier's head.

Gunnar gritted his teeth as his axes deadlocked with the serpent's single claw. The serpent let out a loud hiss before raising it's other claw.

*TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!* "SHHRRAAAAAAA!"

Bullets pelted the serpent's massive body as Gunnar wretched his axes from the serpent's claw and leaped back to defend the group. The three other soldiers kept firing at the serpent, their concentrated fire hitting their mark and making the monstrous serpent bleed and thrash in the throes of pain.

The serpent let loose another bellowing roar as it dipped it's massive crown-shaped head, two noticeable pores on it's head flared open.

*TH-TH-TH-TH-THWIP!* "AARRRGH!"

Gunnar watched as the soldier to his left was launched off his feet and knocked onto the ground. His aura flickered and disappeared as three barbed spines were embedded deep into the soldier's chest, killing him instantly.

The children and the old woman stared aghast at the dead soldier, the three remaining soldiers as well as Gunnar himself had seconds to digest what just occurred.

"HOLDEN!" Another soldier shouted as the concentrated fire suddenly stopped. Two of the soldiers stopped to reload their empty rifles while the one that was previously thrown to the ground by Gunnar ran towards the down soldier.

However, this momentary distraction was all the serpent needed as it roared and aimed it's head at another soldier desperately reloading his rifle.

"RAAAAAAAAGH!" Gunnar bellowed out as he charged the serpent, rapidly spinning Eldur and Kalki by the strap as he bodily put himself in front of the massive monstrosity.

His actions had the intended results as the horrendous serpent turned it's attention away from the soldiers and towards him. It let loose another roar before firing another burst of deadly projectiles straight at Gunnar.

Gunnar swept one of his spinning axes in front him, the first projectile he managed to deflect with Kalki but the force behind the projectile nearly tore his axe from its strap, flinging his left arm wide away. The rest, four in all, slammed against his body and aura with a force of a high caliber bullet, nearly sending him tumbling back.

Gunnar quickly placed his right foot behind him and kicked off, righting himself and leaping the last bit of distance towards the serpent. Axes spinning in his hands as he swung both weapons full force down on the serpent's head.

CLANG! "SHRRRAAAAAA!"

Gunnar gritted his teeth as he pushed with all his strength against the serpent's monstrous claws. They were once again deadlocked, but Gunnar was quickly losing ground. This thing was too strong as it slowly but surely pried his arms apart to give Gunnar a full closeup view of it's nightmarish face.

"SHRAAAAA!" The serpent roared, sending spittle and foul-smelling breath into Gunnar's face.

"COMMANDER!" One of the soldiers behind him yelled.

"GO! TAKE THE CHILDREN AND WOMAN AND GO! I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND!" Gunnar shouted as he reactively moved his head to the side, dodging a vicious bite.

"GO! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Gunnar roared out, dodging another bite. The serpent reared it's head back for another bite, but Gunnar gave a growl before smashing his forehead as hard as he can against the serpent's own sending the abomination reeling back with small cracks on it's carapace covered head.

Gunnar shook off the small concussion as he wrenched his axes from the serpent's claws and spun both to their hammer side. He then activated both Eldur and Kalki, their runes glowing bright orange and blue respectively before cracking a fiery strike across the serpent's face.

The serpent reeled from the strike, it's face scorched from the fiery hammer blow as it's left mandible was horrifically deformed. Before the serpent could recover Gunnar roared as he slammed Kalki across the other side of the creature's face in an explosion of frost.

Right, left, right, left, right, left, Gunnar kept the serpent on the backpedal, slamming his weapons in tandem over and over until the serpent's head resembled a frozen scorched mess. With a final bone crushing uppercut with Eldur and a skull-crushing hammer strike from Kalki, the massive serpent crashed onto the snow-covered ground, motionless.

Gunnar took a moment to breathe. The sound of gunfire and beastly roars filled the air around him, reminding him that he had no time to waste idling.

He turned, seeing that the group left without him on his orders. Good, they should be at the camp center where everyone else is hopefully is.

Gunnar with his closest aides made contingency plans in times of crisis. One of which is if their camp was ever under attack or surrounded then everyone must make their way to the camp center and break out as a combined force of arms.

Gunnar stormed his way towards the camp center, dodging through burning tents, the bodies of the fallen, and the still corpses of those damnable serpents. As he drew closer to the camp's center, the sounds of gunshots, roaring serpents, and orderly shouting grew ever louder.

Gunnar came bursting into the camp center. What he saw brought both a spark of hope and a great deal of worry.

Soldiers wielding extendable ballistic shields created a large defensive perimeter with more soldiers standing behind them firing their rifles at any serpents attacking their position. The shield wall provided cover for the soldiers and squad leaders as they held off the serpents. Gunnar noticed a hastily stacked barricade of crates and boxes in the very center of the defense. This barricade is surrounding those who could not fight as two soldiers are manning the two heavy machine guns, the rapid staccato of their bullets sprayed into any serpent that attacks their lines.

Gunnar also noticed more of their people rushing in from all over. Some made it pass the shield wall, others were not so lucky as Gunnar saw a man trip and fell mere meters away from the shield wall as the serpent chasing him caught up and bit down on the man's leg and quickly dragged him away screaming in desperation.

This occurred all around the defensive perimeter. Serpents were either chasing down and dragging away more of their people or attacked the defenses directly and were met with a concentrated barrage of bullets.

The soldiers still defending the center gave him hope but at the same time, the number of soldiers and non-combatants disheartened him. There were so few left.

"GUNNAR LOOK OUT!" A familiar voice shouted out to him as two arrows soared directly above his head.

"SHRRRAAAAAAAAAA!"

Gunnar quickly spun around and saw a serpent directly behind him thrashing it's head from side to side with two arrows embedded in it's eyes, a high pitched whine could be heard before it stopped completely.

*Boom!*

The arrows exploded, taking the entirety of the serpent's head in the ensuing explosion. Blood and gore sprayed all over Gunnar as the now headless serpent crashed onto the ground before him.

"GUNNAR! GET OVER HERE NOW!" The same familiar voice shouted to him again.

Gunnar turned and sprinted towards the shield wall. The shields in front of him immediately parted and closed quickly behind him as he rushed through. He then quickly made his way over to the barricade, the familiar face of the one that saved his hide greeted him.

"Thank you for the save Maranda! Are you alright!? Where's Jase!? Where is my son!?" Gunnar asked as he took in his friend's current appearance. Suffice to say Maranda looked worse for wear. Her coat was torn in places, soot and blood stained her clothes and face, and her quiver looked to be running low on arrows.

Maranda gave a quick nod. "I'm alright! Jase is here helping with the defense! I've managed to gather as many of the survivors here and set up a perimeter defense! Dr. Harrison is treating the wounded in the barricade, but as you can see more of our people are coming in and these things are relentless!" As if to reinforce her point a section of the shield wall behind Maranda was nearly sent flying back as a serpent charged straight through the shields and the soldiers wielding them. The serpent then let loose a bellowing roar as it brutally launched one soldier into the air with a backswing of it's arms before nearly eviscerating another with it's return swipe.

Soldiers wielding rifles poured into the single serpent, the monstrosity reeling back from the retaliatory attack. Bullets pelted the creature, ricocheting off of it's carapace covered head as the surrounding soldiers slowly advanced on the serpent.

Suddenly the serpent let loose a bloodthirsty roar as it suddenly charged through the hail of bullets towards the nearest group of soldiers at incredible speeds. The soldiers in question tried to quickly backpedal but were too slow as the 12-foot monstrosity was upon them, batting away two soldiers like ragdolls as they came crashing into the barricade and knocking out one of the heavy MG's. Immediately the monstrosity slashed another nearby soldier across the waist, shattering aura and in a gruesome display bisecting the soldier completely in half.

It then bore down on the final soldier as the soldier fell onto his back as he desperately fired his rifle into the creature above him. The serpent raised a single deadly claw high into the air to end the soldier's life.

Before Gunnar could charge the serpent, he then saw Jase charging straight towards the serpent with a war cry, dragging his long sword behind him. The serpent turned towards his son, letting out a loud hiss and swiped the same deadly claw to take Jase's head as he closed into melee range.

Jase quickly ducked the swipe before bringing his sword upwards towards the serpent's exposed neck. The blade sliced across the serpent's exposed neck as blood poured from it's fresh wound. The serpent let loose a pained cry, however, the serpent did not slow down as it sent a brutal sideways swipe that Jase barely managed to block in time, launching the young man into the backs of the nearby soldier's holding the shield wall.

The serpent moved to chase the swordsman but is then met with a concentrated rifle fire of a dozen soldiers including two squad leaders, Squad Leader Aqua with her Dust whip and Squad Leader Fendz with his ballistic tonfa. The serpent engaged the two squad leaders while the surrounding soldiers kept their distance and used controlled fire to cover the two squad leaders.

The serpent went into a frenzy, thrashing, and swinging it's deadly claws at the two squad leaders, however, the squad leaders in question were dodging and ducking the serpent's attacks all the while sending their own attacks at the monster. The serpent seemingly tanked all that came at it but Gunnar began to notice the monster slowing down as it thrashed around in the throes of pain as the bullets and Dust pelted it's massive form.

Maranda knocked two more arrows, aimed, and fired. The arrows soared through the air towards the serpent, the arrows hitting true as the serpent let loose another bellowing roar at the arrows now embedded in it's eyes. As the serpent wailed in pain, the two squad leaders started to barrage the creature with as many attacks as they could. Aqua slashed her whip across the serpent's body, leaving open cut and frozen flesh. Fendz started to wail into the serpent, sending crushing blow after crushing blow against the serpent's massive form.

However, they didn't have the killing power to put down the serpent for good. Even blinded and taking a tremendous amount of fire from all over, the serpent refused to fall, knocking Fendz into the ground with a surprise swipe and nearly taking off Aqua's head.

Gunnar was about to intervene until he saw Jase charge to the serpent, sword at the ready.

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

Blinded and momentarily distracted, Jase charged the serpent while it was under fire. The swordsman then twisted the handle of his sword, the edge of his blade as well as the single grey band along the blade's length glowed a burning orange as the snow just below where the blade's tip met the ground started to melt.

As soon as Jase neared the serpent, the soldiers ceased their fire and the two squad leaders leaped back, giving Jase but a single moment to strike the creature before it could recover. Jase took that chance, swinging his glowing blade upwards towards the creature's ribcage. The sword cut into the serpent's side with a loud hiss of cauterized flesh as it seared it's way up into the serpent's body through the momentum of the swing alone and coming to a stop halfway up the creature's ribbed chest.

The serpent roared out a pained filled cry drowning out the loud hissing of cauterized flesh as it finally slumped lifelessly forward, threatening to crush Jase under it's weight.

Gunnar sprinted forward and held up the creature's massive head before bracing his shoulder against the serpent. "I got you!" Gunnar yelled as he bore the weight of the dead bleeding serpent, giving Jase enough time to pull his sword from it's chest and deactivating the blade.

With a grunt, Gunnar threw the heavy body to the side as Jase wiped the blood off his face. "Pops! You're alright!" Jase said in a breathless tone. Gunnar saw that Jase's clothes were still holding together but stained with a copious amount of blood as well as his face. "Are you alright son!?" Gunnar asked, his stern tone laced with concern.

Jase nodded. "I'm fine! But I hope you got a plan because we won't be lasting much longer with attacks like this!" Jase said, pointing to the dead body of the serpent.

Gunnar nodded. "How many currently are here!?" Gunnar asked, looking at the soldiers and the few squad leaders surrounding them.

Maranda answered. "Portions of squads four, eight, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, seventeen, twelve, seven, and nine are here! The other squads didn't make it! As for everyone else, those who are able to are already joining in the defense. All that is left in the barricade are children and those who cannot physically or mentally fight…" Maranda looked over to the barricade of crates and boxes, Gunnar could see how many had actually made it and it was disheartening of how many he could actually count.

Gunnar has nearly half his soldiers, every able-bodied man and woman is currently part of the defense leaving only elderly, children, and the injured amongst the barricade. However, despite nearly half his fighting force defending this position, many more of their people are either being taken by those serpents or lay dead all around the camp.

He must come up with something fast. Their people will not last any longer at this rate.

"How many shields and rifles do we have!?" Gunnar asked, surveying the shield wall surrounding him. Each soldier forgoing their own rifles to brace their shield with both hands against the physically stronger serpents.

"I don't know!? Roughly sixty shields and thirty to forty rifles!? Barricade has ammo but that won't last long and we are limited on Dust grenades!" Jase answered in an exasperated tone as Maranda suddenly drew and fired off a quick arrow. There was a pained roar above the noise of battle.

"We still have more of our people fleeing to our position and those still hiding in the camp! We can't leave them out there!" Maranda reminded, loosing another arrow at another serpent.

Gunnar nodded. Fully grasping the situation at hand and what they need to do. "Contingency Plan C!" Gunnar told them, their eyes widening temporarily before turning serious. Contingency Plan C is the last resort plan for when their people are faced with complete annihilation with no means of direct escape. They gather whatever is left of their fighting force and make a breakout. Lives will be lost but if Gunnar could save some of his people from complete annihilation then he would gladly risk his life to take it.

"Gunnar! There are still more of our people out there! We can't abandon them!" Maranda exclaimed. She knew exactly what the plan entails and the consequences if they were to fail.

"I know Maranda! I want you to take two squad leaders and find as many of our people still out there! Don't stray too far and return back as soon as you can! We'll hold the defenses until you returned!" Gunnar promised.

Maranda hesitated before firmly nodded her head. "Alright! Give me as long as you can buy!" Maranda said as she ran off. Gunnar watched as she grabbed squad leaders Aqua and Fendz before leading them over the shield wall and disappearing completely amongst the tents surrounding the defenses.

Gunnar turned to his son who is waiting for his own orders. "Jase! I need you to hold the defenses! Those serpents can easily break our lines but are currently prioritizing hunting down our people still within the camp! If you see any serpents approaching our position, I want you to either kill them or drive them away! We can't afford any more casualties so don't take unnecessary risks!" Gunnar ordered the young swordsman, leveling a serious glare on his son.

Jase gave a solemn nod, twisting the handle of his sword as his blade glowed once more. "Yes, father!" Jase replied before sprinting towards a section of the shield wall about to be charged by two serpents, shouting out orders at the nearest soldiers to focus on the first serpent while Jase engaged the second directly.

Gunnar took a moment to take in the current conditions of the surrounding soldiers. They were holding but he could see the desperation and fear in the way most of them stand and in the way they handle their weapons. Even amongst some of those he recognized as seasoned veterans, he could see fear has gripped their bodies and it would take little to shatter their fragile morale.

Gunnar could not blame them; these serpents are unlike anything they have ever faced before. These monstrosities' very appearance is more nightmarish compared to the Grimm as if they are something not of this world. A single serpent is by far stronger and deadlier than the average Beowolf and is as large as an Ursa standing at full height. These creatures also seemed inured to small arms fire as Gunnar watched as a serpent dragged away another one of his people whilst being poured into by a dozen different rifles. The bullets did almost nothing to slow the serpent, only making it bleed as it quickly slithered off with another abducted soul.

The only reassurance that Gunnar had that these serpents can be killed are the still bleeding corpses that lay all around and within the defensive perimeter. But despite the number of dead bodies strewn all around, more still came as even more of his people are either taken away or slaughtered if they resisted.

It brought no measure of comfort knowing what unknown fate befell on those being taken. It was clear these nightmarish serpents are prioritizing taking his people alive rather than killing them, something that made these monsters more frightening than the Grimm.

Through the fire and chaos that was the desperate defense, Gunnar took a deep breath. "SOLDIERS! STAND YOUR GROUND! WE MUST DEFEND THIS POSITION! WE NEED TO BUY TIME TO SAVE AS MANY OF OUR PEOPLE AS WE CAN! LET NONE OF THESE ABMONIATIONS BREAK OUR LINES!" Gunnar exclaimed to the surrounding soldiers.

"HOORAH!" The nearest soldiers shouted out in unison. Like a wave, Gunnar saw soldiers reaffirming their positions as squad leaders shouting out orders and directing rifle fire at any approaching serpent.

Despite their current situation, they were holding the perimeter as the serpents were attacking them by the handful, no doubt too busy hunting down the remaining survivors still amongst their large camp.

However, despite their relatively low attack numbers, these serpents more than showed Gunnar just how deadly and relentless they truly are. A single serpent alone takes up to nearly over a dozen soldiers to take down, they are seemingly inured to pain which makes them terrifyingly tenacious.

Suddenly to Gunnar's left, three serpents tore through the burning tents and roared at the wall of steel as over a dozen rifles roared back in kind. Through the hail of bullets pelting their massive forms, all three serpents dipped their heads in unison, pores flaring open.

Gunnar's eyes widened as he rushed to the soldiers. "TAKE COVER!"

But it was too late. The serpents fired off a volley of deadly projectiles directly at the shield wall. Five of the shield-bearing soldiers holding that section fell back screaming as the volley tore through their ballistic shields and hit few of the soldiers behind them, including Gunnar. He felt a projectile slam into his left pauldron, his aura visibly flaring to absorb the hit as he was forced to take a step back or risk falling from the hit.

Gunnar then watched in mute horror as auras flared and disappeared amongst those who were hit. One soldier on the ground screamed profanities holding his bleeding shoulder, a single barbed spine embedded deeply into his shoulder, nearly severing the arm entirely.

Another soldier was not so lucky. Three barbed spines pierced deep through the soldier's chest plate and into the chest, the soldier's unblinking eyes stared blankly into the snow-filled sky as his hole-ridden shield lay beside him.

The injured soldiers were quickly dragged back to the barricade by their fellows as over a dozen soldiers as well as three squad leaders recovered from the vicious attack and fire back at the three serpents. One of the serpents died to a well placed shot by Squad Leader Crimson's sniper rifle, the second was killed by a trio of grenades while the third quickly turned and fled back into the camp.

Gunnar surveyed the damage caused by the attack. three soldiers horribly injured and two dead, the rest were saved by their auras. He then surveyed the field around him from his position near the barricade. He heard pained screams from behind as he spun and just missed four serpents retreating amongst the tents. Five more soldiers laid unmoving on the ground while the others either recovering or rushing to the scene scrambled to close the opening in the shield wall or helping the wounded.

Gunnar heard more screams all around as serpents came popping in and out from the surrounding tents only to send a volley of deadly projectiles to scatter sections of the defenses before retreating. More soldiers either injured, shaken, or dead laid about on the snow-covered ground as other soldiers are forced to pick up the discarded shields torn with holes in order to fill in the gaps.

Gunnar's eyes widened as he reactively ducked as a flurry of spines whizzed over his head. He heard more screams as he saw four of his squad leaders, Hedrick, Crimson, Sam and Locke fall onto the ground with pained screams as their aura's fizzled and disappeared completely.

A horrible realization dawned on Gunnar. 'These things are testing our defenses!? They're strategizing!'

This did not bode well for Gunnar's people. The Grimm in comparison are mindless, they will kill without mercy or reason. Even particularly older Grimm can strategize and learn to a limited degree but will still mindlessly slaughter like any Grimm.

These serpents on the other hand were moving with an intelligence, dare he say, on a human level. The evidence was there, testing their defenses with ranged attacks at many different points, aiming at their chain of command including himself and retreating immediately before any form of retaliation could be used.

These serpents are either highly intelligent individually or a highly intelligent alpha variant of these serpents is guiding them. Gunnar is leaning more on the latter as the behavior and distinct lack of self-preservation of these serpents shows that the latter is the most possible option. No intelligent creature would risk their lives without good reason, which may explain why he and his people have yet encountered such a creature intelligent enough to organize this attack.

Gunnar looked around and soon noticed a soldier sitting on the ground with their knees to their chest and hands pressing against their hood where their ears are underneath. Shaking and screaming at every gunshot or serpent roar.

Gunnar stared down at the soldier. He has led enough soldiers to their deaths to know when a soldier has finally lost hope and have lost the heart to fight, leaving them a broken mess desperately trying to wish away the dangers. He watched too many soldiers, fresh recruits and seasoned veterans alike be reduced to such a state. Everyone has a breaking point, and in their current situation, many more will reach theirs soon enough. This soldier he was looking at will not be the last.

But that does not mean Gunnar will not stand idly by and let his soldiers lose hope. Their people cannot afford that, especially now.

Gunnar grabbed the soldier by their armored chest plate, startling them and forcefully lifting them up to their feet. "SOLDIER!" The soldier, a young woman stared at him wide-eyed and shaking as her hood slipped from her head to reveal two distinct cat ears. "What is your name soldier!?" Gunnar shouted, looking right into the eyes of the woman before him.

The young soldier was hyperventilating and crying tears.

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME!?" Gunnar demanded once more.

"NOIR!" The woman cried out.

"NOIR! WHAT IS YOUR DUTY!"

Noir's eyes darted all around in confusion, trying to find the answer. "I-I don't-"

Gunnar shook Noir. "WHAT IS YOUR DUTY SOLDIER!"

Noir wide eyes stared directly into his own. "T-To prote-"

"LOUDER!"

"TO PROTECT OUR PEOPLE!" Noir cried out.

Gunnar schooled his expression to a stern look. "Noir! Will you uphold your duty!?"

Noir frantically shook her head. "I-I CAN'T! I-I'M SCARED! I'M SCARED!" Noir confessed, her pleading eyes streaking tears down her face as her cries are drowned out by the surrounding noise of battle.

Gunnar let go of her armor before firmly placing both hands on Noir shoulder's, forcing her to look at his eyes. "IF YOU DON'T FIGHT THEN YOU WILL DIE! IF YOU DON'T FIGHT THEN OTHERS WILL DIE!" Gunnar shouted out, driving the point. Noir's breathing started to calm down but was still heavy, her eyes widened at what Gunnar just told her.

"You are a soldier of our people Noir! You have the resolve and courage to stand against the Grimm! You will have the resolve and courage to stand against these creatures! Will you stand in the defense of our people!?"

Hesitation, fear, and indecisiveness held the soldier's words back. "WILL YOU STAND!?"

"Y-YES!" Noir shouted back; her eyes still held fear but Gunnar could see determination. Her courage has been rekindled.

Gunnar nodded. "Good! I need you to notify the other squad leaders that Plan C is in effect! Do you understand!?"

"Y-YES SIR!" Noir stuttered. Gunnar gave a curt nod before picking the young soldier's rifle from the ground and placing it into her hands. "Carry out the order! I'm depending on you!"

Noir gave a salute before rushing off to carry out Gunnar's order. Gunnar immediately brought his attention back to the defense at hand. The serpents were still attacking, some charging through the shield wall only to be focused down by rifles or dispatched by the still-standing squad leaders. However, many more serpents continued to test his defenses, attacking and retreating in irregular intervals as sections of the defense buckled under these deadly attacks.

More of his people are rushing in from all around. Soldiers escorting non-combatants quickly joined in the defense, those carrying their loved ones in their arms rushed through the chaos to safety, and lastly those who came bloodied and injured rushed desperately past the safety of the shield wall.

Gunnar turned to the barricade. Some of the non-combatants are assisting Harrison, their people's doctor, to treat the injured using whatever supplies they had on hand to desperately heal the wounded. However, more and more wounded started crowding the barricade, most of whom are soldiers that were part of the defense.

Gunnar then looked at the surrounding camp beyond the shield wall. In the distance through the falling snow and burning tents, Gunnar's eyes caught the familiar figure of Maranda leaping and darting through the tents with the two other figures right behind her. Gunnar is then reminded why they are holding the defenses; he hopes Maranda returns soon or else their people will succumb to these monstrosities soon enough.

Gunnar trusted her to do her part. They must save all they possibly can.

"FATHER!"

Gunnar immediately turned to his left and is met with Jase supporting a wounded soldier. Two people from the barricade came rushing out to relieve the soldier from Jase's arms. "Father! Those things! They stopped coming!"

Gunnar didn't reply, immediately surveying the defenses and their immediate surroundings. The sudden absence of gunshots and roaring serpents was replaced by the howling winter winds and the soft roar of their still burning camp.

As Jase said, the serpents are nowhere to be found. They were nowhere to be seen or heard. And that what worried him the most.

A nervous silence descended on the defenders as the tension slowly built amongst the weary soldiers. All the soldiers were on edge, shields held firmly, rifles scanning the immediate area for any more attacks, and a few of the remaining squad leaders looked to Gunnar in an unspoken question of 'what should we do?'

Gunnar also noticed during the time of sudden silence that there were no more of his people escaping to their defense. That very thought worried Gunnar more then it brought relief as he gazed at the roaring fires still consuming the camp. The surrounding fires noticeably dying down as darkness slowly descended on the defenders, reducing their range of vision.

Gunnar did not like this at all. The serpents had them in a desperate last defense and Gunnar had no idea as to their true number. There could be hundreds waiting to attack them unawares and they clearly have shown to be both ruthless and relentless.

Gunnar wanted to think that these serpents got what they needed and left, that their defenses held and drove off the serpent horde. But his gut says otherwise as the question of why these serpents stopped attacking plagued his thoughts. If his earlier theory about the intelligence of these serpents was correct, then the serpents may have deliberately retreated and are planning something. Something that does not bode well for the remnants of his people.

The soldier's stayed firmly in formation, either expecting a sudden attack or too afraid to break off from the defense. "Father... What should we do?" Jase asked, his tone and face filled with worry.

Gunnar looks to his son before observing the soldiers and squad leaders around him, some of which are looking to him for directions.

With a deep breath, Gunnar opened his mouth to address his soldiers.

"SSKKKRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII!"

Gunnar nearly choked on his words. Piercing through the howling wind was an ear-piercing cry, unlike anything he has ever heard. The ground suddenly started to rumble as what sounded like a distant avalanche was roaring all around him accompanied by an incoherent chorus of a thousand shrieking monstrosities, drowning out all other noise as it grew louder by the second.

Gunnar quickly looked to his soldiers, many of whom are in disarray from the sudden air shattering noise. "FORM UP! FORM! UP!" Gunnar shouted as loud as he could through all the noise. Fortunate favored him as those nearby heard his order and started to quickly spread the word as squad leaders shouted out orders and soldiers quickly rushed to reform the defense. The openings were filled and rifles raised over the shield wall to face whatever was approaching.

Gunnar could hear the panicked cries of the survivors from the barricade behind him. Children crying out in fear, others crying out in panic and spouting words of hopelessness.

Gunnar tightened his grip on his axes as he activated the Dust held within. He steeled his resolve as he shared a look with Jase, his son's expression is one of determination laced with worry.

Gunnar simply nodded as his son returned the gesture. No words need to be said as Gunnar and no doubt his son knew what they must do.

Gunnar steeled his resolve and readied himself to face whatever may come for his people next.

Soon the avalanche of noise was basically upon them as the ground shook with a force of a small earthquake. Gunnar's resolve lasted all but a few seconds at what came out from the blizzard and from the tents surrounding him and his people.

All Gunnar could see is a mass SWARM of bodies pouring out from between the surrounding tents and into the clearing, too fast, and far too many to discern the individual creature. All Gunnar can make out are creatures the size of large wolves with distinct insect-like wings, upper limbs ending in dagger-like scythes, sharp-fanged maws, and glowing amber eyes.

There was nothing but a chaotic mass of skittering cries too inhuman to be of this world. It was near deafening as Gunnar could not even hear himself think much less listen to Jase or the other panicking soldiers. All he could see and think about is the literal vortex of these abominable creatures circling all around them just mere meters away from the shield wall. Like a pack of wolves circling their soon-to-be prey.

None of the soldiers fired their weapons, whether they were frozen in fear from the sudden appearance of these seemingly numberless creatures or are too afraid to set off the maelstrom that was the swarm surrounding them.

Gunnar looked in every direction to see a possible route for escape. But everywhere he looked there were dozens, nearly hundreds, of these creatures still pouring in from all around. He could not see a way to escape nor could he see a possible point for a breakout.

Surrounded. Gunnar and his people are completely surrounded.

Gunnar felt someone shaking his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. "FATHER! WHAT SHOULD WE DO!?"

Gunnar turned his gaze towards the one who shouted at him, Jase. He could see the clear desperation in swordsman's eyes, something Gunnar couldn't help but reciprocate. He turned and saw the same expression held in every eye he could see, men, women, children, elderly, human, and faunus. They all knew that there will be no possible way to survive this, but still held onto the slim hope that Gunnar could find a way, he was their lifeline, he was their last bit of hope.

But all Gunnar could do is return the hopeless in their eyes with silence. Even if he sacrificed every soldier, every squad leader, plus his own life, there was no possibility for any of the children or the elderly to escape this hopeless situation.

He truly doesn't know what to do.

CLANG! "SKKKREEEEIIII!"

Gunnar snapped his head behind him just in time to see one of the creatures clawing and scrambling over the shield wall as it continuously stabbed it's deadly limbs at the soldier desperately holding it back. Five soldiers immediately fired at the creature, riddling it's horrendous face with bullets until it slumped off the soldier's shield.

Immediately after another piercing shriek sounded out at another section of the shield wall followed by more inhuman cries at another section. Gunnar watched in growing horror as sections of the shield wall struggled to hold against the attacking creatures, the soldiers wielding rifles started firing at the creatures attacking. As the creatures died even more of the shield wall begun to come under attack as even more creatures from the surrounding swarm broke off and charged the shield wall on all sides.

"OPEN FIRE!" Gunnar shouted out as the soldiers sprayed into the incoming swarm even before he gave order. A blazing torrent of bullets and what few explosives were still left on hand peppered and blasted the charging creatures as bodies started to drop.

CRASH! "SKRREEEIIIIII!"

Gunnar saw two shield-bearers knocked flat onto their backs as a dozen of these many-limbed monstrosities barreled through the breach. The soldiers nearest to the breach started gunning down the pack, these creatures thankfully dying to far fewer shots then the serpents but still need an unaffordable number of bullets to put a single one down permanently. The first few creatures that were gunned down merely bought enough time for the rest to quickly close in and pounced at the surrounding soldiers. Soldiers yelled and screamed as the creatures tackled them into the ground and started tearing into them. The soldiers desperately fought back or wrestled with the creature on top of them to no avail. The creatures were biting, clawing, and stabbing all their deadly limbs into the soldiers pinned underneath them.

Gunnar shot forward alongside two squad leaders. He ran to the nearest pinned soldier and smashed the heavy creature off with Kalki's hammer. As the creature crashed back onto the ground and scramble to right itself up, Gunnar drew back and threw Eldur at the downed creature, scoring it in it's exposed underbelly and ending it permanently.

Gunnar quickly checked the soldier below him, seeing no obvious wounds and the soldier already retrieving his rifle Gunner flicked his wrist, and Eldur flew back into his hand before charging at the next pair of monsters. He threw Kalki into the side of the first creature and threw Eldur into the skull of the next, saving two pinned soldiers. However, the creature with Kalki still buried in it's side managed to quickly recover and turned on Gunnar with a furious cry before charging.

With a powerful huff, Gunnar reared back his right fist and smashed an aura enhanced punch into the creature's face as it leaped at him. The creature gave a pained cry as it crashed back onto the ground before him, with a flick of his wrist Eldur flew in his right hand as Gunnar slammed the axe blade right into the neck of the creature, ceasing it movements permanently.

Retrieving his other axe, Gunnar saw the creatures that breached their defenses were already being taken care of by the other two squad leaders as the soldiers from other parts of the defense held the breach long enough for the two shield-bearers to fill the gap. The breach was fixed, only to nearly buckle back once more as even more creatures threw themselves at the shields.

It was at this point Gunnar noticed that the entirety of the shield wall was under attack. Everywhere he looked, creatures were scrambling nearly over the shields as soldiers struggled to keep them at bay. Some of the creatures started to leap over the shields and into the confines of their defense, only to be immediately gunned down while in the air or upon landing.

But as the seconds ticked by it was evident to Gunnar that the shield wall will not hold for long. Sections of the shield wall were already being pushed back to the point where creatures came barreling through and attacking the soldiers within. Gunnar saw his son alongside two squad leaders trying to stem the breaches, cutting down any of the many-limbed creatures before they can wreak havoc amongst their defense.

However, more and more of the creatures managed to breach the defenses, even going so far as to drag down sections of the shield wall and pour through to engage the soldiers in a vicious melee. Gunnar had to bury Kalki into the skull of a charging creature and he fought to plug a breach, but another pack of creatures poured through and threw themselves at the nearest soldiers, dwindling the defender's numbers even more.

Gunnar cracked Eldur's hammer across the face of a creature before burying the axe of Kalki into the skull of another and shattering the teeth of a charging creature with a backswing of Eldur. There were simply too many of these creatures for his soldiers to handle as they are on their last legs, so Gunnar made the call. "ALL SOLDIERS! FALL BACK TO THE BARRICADE! FALL BACK TO THE-"

"SKKKKRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIII!"

As if to make their situation even worse, all around the defensive perimeter the swarming maelstrom of creatures started converging and charge the shield wall like a roaring flood. The creatures were upon them within seconds as bullets and explosions continue to rip through their numbers, doing nothing to halt the nightmarish flood.

There was a loud crash, a horrible ear grating sound of claw meeting steel as the entire shield wall surrounding Gunnar buckled and fell against the sheer weight of numbers.

The soldiers holding the shields desperately fought back and were trampled underneath the flood of creatures as a result. Other's tried to flee but were tackled onto the ground and swallowed up by the swarm, squad leaders didn't fare any better as a few of them were overwhelmed and dragged down, their dying screams was all that can be heard from them.

Those who were lucky enough managed to retreat behind the barricade, firing in desperation at any of these monstrous creatures that attacked the barricade. All notion of firing discipline and aiming is long since gone as the soldiers and even a few of the barricade's occupants desperately sprayed into the surrounding swarm. Gunnar as well as Jase and whoever was left were fighting just outside the barricade, literally fighting tooth and nail against the flood of creatures.

Gunnar is fighting right beside his son, burying Eldur into the face of one creature before smashing aside another creature charging him from the left with Kalki. He then wretched his axe out of the dead creature's head and slammed Eldur's hammer to knock away two creatures in a fiery explosion.

Gunnar had no time to breathe as a creature lunged at him from the front, fanged maw opened wide and sharp appendages ready to pierce into Gunnar until a heated sword seared into it's face and sliced right through it's body.

Gunnar sidestepped the cauterized halves before shooting Jase a thankful nod. Gunnar didn't have time to think as one of the creatures managed to bite down on his left arm, dragging his arm down before another creature charged him from the front.

With a bellowing roar, Gunnar with all his strength grabbed and lifted the creature biting on his left arm and slammed it down on the creature charging him. There was a pained shriek from both creatures as the creature let go of Gunnar's arm. Before the creatures could have the chance to recover, Gunnar used Kalki to gut the exposed underbelly of the first creature before slamming the axe blade of Eldur into the thick head of the second creature underneath the first.

Before Gunnar could wretch Eldur out from the dead creature's thick skull, something crashed onto his back, making him tumble forward before falling onto the ground. The thing on his back gave out a furious cry as Gunnar could FEEL it's claws stabbing and pounding away at his back, his aura holding against the onslaught.

Gunnar let loose a strangled roar before bodily lifting himself and the creature on his back before raising an arm to grab the creature off his back. Suddenly Gunnar felt the air leave his lungs as another creature crashed into his stomach, toppling him on his back. Gunnar's vision blurred for a moment before seeing a fanged maw going straight for his face. Gunnar reactively brought up his right arm to defend himself as the creature bit down on his vambrace, sharp teeth grating against his aura as it used it's front limbs to claw and scratch at his defending arm.

Gunnar tried to bring his axe in his left hand to bear but another creature seized his arm in it's teeth, pulling and restraining his arm as Gunnar desperately tried to wretch free. Suddenly he felt two more creature's biting down on his legs as Gunnar was suddenly being pulled in three different directions before being bodily dragged across the ground. His vision suddenly darkens as another creature appeared above the first as it stabbed one of it's top appendages towards Gunnar's face.

Gunnar quickly tilted his head to dodge the deadly limb, but the creature attacked with the other as it bashed against Gunnar's face, his aura being the only reason why he survived.

The creature on top of him was soon joined by many others as they clawed, screeched, bit, and stabbed at his body for what felt like a small eternity. His aura flaring with every hit as his body is being viciously torn into by the pile of creatures on top of him.

Gunnar then screamed out in excruciating pain as he felt the claws and bites started to dig into his body. His aura is officially gone, and he cannot fight back. He was going to be torn apart.

Suddenly a sound of seared flesh and a pained cry rang above him as Gunnar suddenly felt the weight on top of him lessen. Soon through a series of pained cries and more sounds of scorching flesh, Gunnar suddenly felt his left hand become free.

Gritting through the pain, Gunnar activated Eldur and slammed the weapon into the creature on top of him. With a strangled cry the creature is blasted off of him as Gunnar quickly crushed the head of the creature that seized his right leg before swinging his now free axe, Kalki, deep into the face of the last creature trying to tackle him back onto the ground.

With the last creature dead, Gunnar shoved the body off him before he felt a hand grabbing onto his left arm. "FATHER! YOU HAVE TO GET UP!" The voice of Jase shouted from above him as Gunnar felt someone pulling him up and over the barricade by the arm.

Gunnar groan in pain as he quickly got up onto his feet with the help of his son. His felt battered and his legs felt like they were torn and cut apart by a hundred razors. One quick look showed him just that.

Gunnar was bleeding at the sides and upper chest as his coat and one right pauldron was torn in a state of disrepair. The bottom half of his pant legs were torn to shreds, bleeding cuts, and even a large bite mark decorated his legs but fortunately, his armored boots took the brunt of the damage, allowing him to walk.

"father! Are you alright!?" Jase asked, seeing the multiple cuts, stab and bite wounds that Gunnar suffered.

Gunnar gritted his teeth in pain. "I'm fine! I'll live! Protect the barricade and bring back anyone you can!"

"But father-"

"I'LL BE FINE! NOW GO!" Gunnar shouted.

Gunnar saw the hesitance in Jase's face before he turned, hopped the barricade, and charged into the surrounding swarm. His glowing sword can be seen cutting through any creatures that got in his way.

It was at this moment that Gunnar saw the current situation. Calling it a battle cannot begin to describe what Gunnar is seeing. It was chaos, soldiers scattered amongst the swarm and dropping by the second as squad leaders tried in vain to fight back the savage creatures with every ounce of skill and ability they have.

He watched as Squad Leader Dawn fought desperately to keep the creatures at bay with her pistol sword and darting through the swarm with every ounce of agility. But a creature bit down on her right leg, pinning her down. As she turns to attack the offending creature the rest piled on top of her as she screamed her last as she was torn apart.

Gunnar saw a soldier outside the barricade firing wildly at the surrounding creatures until he was tackled from behind and stabbed through the back of the head. Another soldier tried to come to the rescue of the fallen soldier, but a dozen creatures dragged the soldier screaming onto the ground as Gunnar saw blood fly and limbs torn off.

This happened similarly all around as soldiers and the remaining six squad leaders fought a desperate resistance against the swarm.

Gunnar then looked around within the barricade's confines, seeing wounded soldiers packed back to back and shoulder to shoulder firing their weapons, children in the very middle crying and covering their ears, the elderly either hugging the children or joining in the defense with rifles or pistols taken from the deceased, even few of the older children were joining in the defense.

Gunnar watched the resolve and desperation amongst those who had no place in this battle, to see them fighting when they know all hope is lost.

Soldiers and non-combatants alike fought against the swarm. Creatures were knocked back as bullets hit their marks, accuracy was not an issue with such distance that one could take a knife and hit three of these creatures in a single swing. Gunnar himself hacked and bashed aside any creature that neared his side of the barricade, taking two or three of these creatures at a time with every swing. The remaining squad leaders followed Gunnar's example, risking themselves to fend off the creatures in direct melee as the soldiers and other survivors provided supporting fire.

"KEEP FIRING!"

"SSKKKRREEIIIIII!"

"GET THEM OFF THE BARRICADE!"

"DAMN IT! GET IT OFF-" "SKKKREEEEIIII!"

"I'M OUT!"

"HERE! MAKE THEM COUNT!"

"GRAY IS DOWN!"

*DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU- CLICK!* "DAMN IT! MG'S OUT!"

The corpses of the creatures started to pile all around them as the surrounding creatures started using the bodies of their fallen to ramp up into the barricade, something Gunnar did not take into consideration. Multiple creatures leaped at the barricade, many were quickly killed but a single creature tackled an elderly man; the man wrestled desperately with the creature as all those not fighting scrambled away. The man's aura held long enough for two soldiers to put a bullet into the creature's head before the elderly man shoved the corpse off and rejoined the defense.

Gunnar saw another soldier spraying a full clip into a creature at point-blank range until another creature suddenly bit down the man's rifle and forcefully dragged the soldier out from the cover of the barricade by the rifle strap still slung around his body. Those nearby tried to grab the soldier but were too late as the man was forcefully dragged out of the barricade kicking and screaming deep into the swarm.

Gunnar gritted his teeth as he smashed aside another shrieking creature. No matter how many of these creatures he or his soldiers killed their bodies only paved the way for their nightmarish kin to attack them. These creatures are relentless, throwing themselves at their last-ditch defense with unrelenting bloodlust and no sense of self-preservation.

A creature charging right at Gunnar had one of it's front limbs shot off and side riddled with bullets, but as it bled all over the blood-stained snow it still let out a blood-curling shriek before leaping at the barricade, taking a fatal shot to the head before it crashed dead onto the barricade. Another creature is clawing and stabbing at Squad Leader Jess as she kept the thing at bay with one arm. The squad leader then stabbed her bayonet into the creature's exposed underbelly and pulled the trigger of her shotgun, blasting the creature point-blank three times and turning it's guts into a bleeding mess before throwing the creature off to the side.

However despite their desperate defense, they were being worn down and picked off as the soldiers slowly retreated from the barricade's direct cover as the creatures were actively piling into the barricade. Gunnar backed away from the barricade also while swinging his weapon at any creature that came at him. Auras drained, wounds suffered, and their ammunition and Dust will eventually run dry at this rate.

Gunnar immediately quashes the negative thoughts. This will not be his people's end. He will make sure of it.

"SOLDIERS! PROTECT THE SURVIVORS! SQUAD LEADERS ON ME!" Gunnar shouted out as the remaining squad leaders along with Jase quickly gathered beside him.

"What's the plan father!?" Jase asked, quickly cutting down a creature attacking his left as the other squad leaders were keeping any creatures at bay.

"ON MY SIGNAL! WE'RE GOING TO CHARGE THROUGH AND CLEAR A PATH! SOLDIERS FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE SURVIVORS! PROTECT THEM AT ALL COST!" Gunnar exclaimed as he smashed aside a creature and buried Kalki into another. The remaining soldiers left surrounded the survivors as the elderly and children stood onto their feet, all ready to run as their lives depend on it.

No one questioned Gunnar as everyone got into formation. They all knew to attempt a breakout now is paramount to suicide, but this was their only option left to save the survivors.

Gunnar knows that he and many of those still standing will not survive this. But If there is even a chance for his people to escape, then Gunnar would gladly sacrifice his life in exchange for theirs.

Gunnar looked to Jase. His one and only son. Praying to whatever gods are out there to look after him.

As the creatures kept pouring in all around them and as they struggled to keep the swarm at bay, Gunnar wretched his axes out of his latest kill and brandished both at his sides, Dust glowing within his axes ready to be expanded for one more use.

Gunnar steeled his resolve as he raised Eldur to give the signal.

*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!*

Gunnar's eyes widened as he sees a pair of bright lights rapidly growing larger beyond the tent line and through the blizzard. The creatures in front of Gunnar turned towards the source of the sound just as a large V-blade snowplow attached to a transport truck came CRASHING its way through the tents, creatures already crawling all over it's the armored hull.

Without stopping, the unseen driver plowed straight into and through the creatures in front of Gunnar, violently rocking through the swarm as the unknown driver continued to run over and plow through the creatures in its path.

The truck is rapidly coming in a headlong collision course straight at Gunnar as he and those beside him prepared to leap out of the way. Suddenly the truck swerved to the left just missing Gunnar and started looping around the entirety of the barricade, further plowing through the surrounding swarm in a gruesome display of mutilated bodies and blood.

It's sudden appearance managed to divert the attention of the surrounding swarm from the Gunnar and the remaining survivors, giving the survivors precious few seconds of respite. The creatures threw themselves at the truck in a frenzy of animalistic cries, many of whom crashed against and rolled off the truck's armored hull and front or met a gruesome end underneath it's bloodied wheels. Those that manage to cling onto the truck were soon thrown off by the flying bodies of their kin or were dislodged by the violent rocking.

As the truck circled around and neared Gunnar, the wheels of the truck suddenly stopped as it came skidding and sliding around to Gunnar, throwing up the bloodied snow in a shower of red and white. Gunnar quickly backed away as the truck came to a skidding stop right in front of him. The blood-stained door to the driver's seat suddenly flung open, revealing the roughed up and injured driver.

"GET IN!" Maranda shouted as she kicked off a creature in front of her before slamming the door close.

Gunnar immediately sprang into action. "SOLDIERS COVER THE SURVIVORS! SQUAD LEADERS WITH ME! LET'S CLEAR A PATH!" Gunnar barked out as he immediately leaped over the barricade, batting aside two creatures before spearheading the path towards the truck.

The surrounding swarm surged forward and closed the gap within seconds. Survivors rushed straight for the truck as soldiers bravely stood their ground, bullet lancing into the surrounding swarm.

Gunnar was the first to make it to the back of the truck just as the metal doors swung open to reveal Maranda, she was in a far worse state when he last seen her, her bow was missing and she was bleeding from a nasty cut on her head and a wound on her shoulder.

Before Gunnar could ask about Maranda's condition, her eyes suddenly widened at something behind him. "BEHIND YOU!" Gunnar immediately spun around already swinging Kalki, just in time to swat a creature out of the air and sent a skull-crushing blow to the head of the second creature.

"COMMANDER THERE'S TOO MAN- AAAUUURG!"

Gunnar heard the pained cry, knowing another soldier fell. They were out in the open and will soon fall before the survivors could even get to the truck.

With this in mind, Gunnar then let out a bellowing roar as he charged forward, shoulder tackling the first creature in his path and carried it's body through it's swarming kin before throwing the abomination off of him right onto another creature.

Gunnar was in the thick of it as creatures charged at him from everywhere in front of him. Gunnar swung his axes, cleaving off the head of one creature, bashing aside another, burying Eldur into another, firing off a blade of ice from Kalki into several others, blasting back a couple with a single explosive strike of Eldur. Gunnar continued to swing his arms in a never-ending pattern of wide swings and downward strikes, trying to keep the swarm's attention on him as much as possible while keeping them at bay away from the truck.

However, no matter how many he killed or how many he knocked away, the dead were immediately replaced by a dozen more creatures as the ones that were hit by his crushing blows lifted themselves back up and threw themselves once more at Gunnar. Gunnar did not know if his plan was working or not, but right now he is quickly becoming overwhelmed as three creatures managed to tackle him onto the ground, his axes held in front of him desperately keeping the creatures' fanged maws away.

Suddenly a glowing sword appeared from above as it sliced through all three creatures while the recognizable face of Squad Leader Lance stepped over him and batted a creature away with a skull-crushing blow with his sledgehammer.

"FATHER GET UP! SQUAD LEADERS! HOLD THIS PERIMETER!"

"GOT IT!"

"LET'S GO!"

"COVER ME!"

"GODDAMMIT, THERE'S TOO MANY!"

"I SAY! JUST KILL THEM ALL!"

Gunnar quickly scrambled back onto his feet as he watched as all six remaining squad leaders plus his son were fighting side by side holding a circular perimeter around Gunnar and the truck. The creatures continued to charge forward but the squad leaders as well as Jase fought against the surrounding swarm with everything they have. Gunnar took a brief look back at the truck, seeing the survivors quickly filing into the armored transport while the remaining soldiers and the survivors who chose to fight covered the survivors, gunning down the many creatures that still poured in between the squad leaders.

"SKKREEEIIIIII!"

"AAAAAAH! GET IT OFF!"

"HOLD O-" "SKKKREEEEEEEIII!"

Gunnar saw the creatures clamber onto the truck's roof and using it as an elevated platform to pounce on any unexpecting soldier or survivor. Many more soldiers and survivors were tackled to the ground and were being mauled. These same creatures were quickly gunned down but that took attention away from the surrounding creatures, causing even more creatures to attack the already dwindling numbers of soldiers and survivors.

Gunnar gritted his teeth as he charges straight to the defense of his people, slamming Eldur into the back of the first creature before slamming Kalki into it's head. He then wretched the axes out and threw them both at two different creatures attacking a soldier and a child respectively. The axes hit true and buried themselves into the heads of both creatures, the soldier quickly picking up the child and throwing her into the truck.

Gunnar then saw a survivor being dragged away by a creature. He flicked his wrists but immediately noticed his mangled and damaged vambraces, the gravity Dust no longer working. With an annoyed grunt, Gunnar ran towards the unnamed survivor as well as the creature dragging him away. The beast noticed him as it let go of the man's leg with a shrill shriek, the man scrambled away in terror.

Gunnar stopped in his tracks as the creature sprung into the air straight towards him. Just as the creature was upon him, Gunnar raised his hands and threw the creature onto the ground behind him, using it's own momentum against it.

The creature let out an indigent shriek as it crashed onto the snow-covered ground, but before it could recover, a soldier ran up to the flailing beast and fired a full clip into the creature.

With the creature dead, Gunnar then turned his attention to the creatures still climbing and leaping off the truck's roof. He then ran towards the truck, picked up his axes along the way, and leaped high into the air.

Gunnar immediately landed and rolled on top of the truck. As he came out of the roll he is already swinging his axes, knocking off and cleaving through four creatures in quick succession. Gunnar stood on top of the roof, kicking and killing any creature that dared come up to face him. He had no shortage of creatures trying to kill him as they climbed up from the front of the truck or leaped at soaring heights straight at him.

Gunnar faced them all. Despite his injuries and his depleted aura, he refused to fall. He could not afford to.

"GUNNAR!" Gunnar batted away another creature before looking down at Maranda, who was standing just outside the back of the truck with a rifle in hand. "EVERYONE IS IN! GET THE OTHERS!" Maranda shouted as she turned and fired off three quick shots.

Gunnar looked to the soldiers before looking to the squad leaders and his son. His heart thumped against his chest as what was used to be seven holding a desperate defense is now four. Fortunately Gunnar could still see the glowing sword of his son's weapon still sweeping against the surrounding horde of many-limbed monstrosities.

With no time to lose, Gunnar shouted. "EVERYONE! RETREAT INTO THE TRUCK! WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!"

Immediately the soldiers turned and filed into the truck, leaving Maranda the last to enter the truck.

However, the squad leaders and his son did not retreat. They continued to hold their ground against the swarm and Gunnar could see why.

The squad leaders cannot afford a quick retreat. The moment they do they will be overwhelmed in seconds. Already Gunnar is seeing the all four squad leaders slowly and surely being dragged down.

It was not until Gunnar saw his son being bodily tackled onto the ground by a leaping creature and smoldered by the dozen more did Gunnar leaped high off the truck's roof. Expanding the last of Eldur's fire Dust, Gunnar came smashing down onto the swarming creatures, letting loose a wave of fire to clear a direct path to his son.

The wave of fire washed over the creatures smothering his son, their bodies shielding him from the fire as they screeched and burned. Gunnar then charged straight to his son, knocking away any creature in his way and kicked off the burning creatures on top of his son. He then glanced down and saw the bloodied face of his Jase, quickly wiping the blood off his eyes and pulling his son onto his feet.

"Father?"

"SON! GET TO THE TRUCK!"

"BUT FATHER-"

"GET TO THE TRUCK NOW!" Gunnar swept a glowing Kalki on the ground in front of him. A wall of ice erupted and speared into a dozen of the creatures. Already even more creatures rushed around and even over the wall.

Gunnar turned to his son, seeing the hesitation in his bloodied face. "GO!"

Jase turned and ran towards the truck; Gunnar smashed another creature away before rushing after his son.

The other squad leaders turned to retreat, however, two of them were soon beset upon by a dozen creatures. The remaining two, Jess and Lance, ran and made it to the truck, the remaining soldiers shooting from out of the truck's open back.

Gunnar all but shoved Jase into the truck as he made his way inside the crowded truck. "GO!"

The entire truck suddenly lurched forward with a roar of its engine, nearly toppling Gunnar back if not for the several hands that held him upright.

The truck was rocking violently, the screeching and screams of the creatures can be heard above the screaming of the children. Gunnar could hear the creatures clambering all over the truck and clawing at the truck's hull.

"We'll be fine right!?" An unnamed soldier asked.

Suddenly a bone-like dagger erupted from the side of the truck's hull just inches above the soldier's head. Everyone screamed as more bone-like scythes started punching through the truck.

Gunnar rushed to the front of the truck. "MARANDA! GET US OUT OF HERE NOW!"

"I CAN'T! WE'RE TOO BOGGED DOWN! THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM!" Maranda shouted back, both hands glued to the wheel. Gunnar looked out the truck's window, or what he could actually see through the cracked glass. This truck was one of the Atlas Military's own armored transport truck, ferrying supplies from kingdom to one of the kingdom's many outposts.

The truck can take hits and nothing less then a Megalith can turn this truck to a heap of scrap. Lucky for them the windows were of reinforced material, but at the rate, the creatures are attacking the truck, the windows shattering is the least of Gunnar's problems.

Everywhere he looked outside the window creatures were all over them. They were climbing up the truck from all sides as the vast majority circling the bogged down truck just a few meters away.

But one thing is for sure in Gunnar's mind. They aren't going anywhere unless the creatures are cleared off.

Hopping over to the passenger seat, Gunnar held Kalki in his left hand. "What are you doing Gunnar!?" Maranda asked.

Gunnar turned to look at his long-time friend, placing his right hand on the door handle.

Maranda's eyes widened. "Gunnar! NO!"

"Father what are you doing!?" The voice of his son shouted from behind him.

Gunnar looked to Maranda. "When the way is clear! Move forward and don't stop!"

He then looked back to Jase. Looking at his son for the last time. "Son! Keep our people safe!"

Before anyone could stop him, Gunnar swung the passenger door open, throwing off any creatures that were blocking it.

Letting out a cry of fury, Gunnar leaped out of the truck and smashed Kalki onto the ground. Giant spears of ice burst forth from the spot and speared into the surrounding swarm. Then with a single sweep, a wave of ice erupted from the ground as it sliced through the circling swarm, creating a wall of thick ice.

With one wall finished, Gunnar sprinted around the front of the truck, unstrapping Eldur and burying the axe into the face of a creature before smashing aside another with the hammer side. A creature slipped through his axes and stabbed one of it's forelimbs into his right thigh, making Gunnar cry out in pain.

He then gritted through the pain and brought Eldur down hard on the creature's head, cracking it's skull. Gunnar quickly pulled the limb out of his thigh, shooting more pain down his leg but ignored it the best he could.

Suddenly another searing pain erupted from his back as he felt a great weight on his back. He roared and spun around and threw the creature off his back and onto the side of the truck. With the creature seemingly dazed, Gunnar brought down Eldur and ended the creature before limping forward.

He started slowly but surely clearing the front of the truck, cutting down any he could and bashed, kicked, and knocked aside any he could not. Creatures leaped from the truck and charged at him from all sides, giving him more wounds with every attack he dished out.

Gunnar ignored his pain and tanked through the hits. Once he's directly in front of the truck he sent another wave of ice to clear the creatures in front of the truck, creating large stakes of ice angled high enough to deter the onrushing swarm and low enough for the truck to ramp over. Kalki's light is noticeably dimmer after nearly expanding all of it's Dust, Gunnar prayed there is still enough for what he needs to do last.

Gunnar rushed to the other side of the truck, his right leg bleeding profusely forcing him into a haggard limp.

"SKKKREEEEEEEEIII!"

"AAAAAARRGH!"

An unseen creature just around the corner of the truck tackled him onto the ground, knocking Kalki out of his hand. Gunnar held the creature's neck, struggling to keep it's sharp teeth at bay while it kept stabbing it's dagger-like limbs at his face.

One managed to slip through bury itself deep into his left shoulder. Gunnar gritted his teeth in agonizing pain. He fought through the pain and brought up Eldur, slamming the axe into the head of the creature on top of him. As the creature collapsed off of Gunnar, he then quickly, and painfully, yanked out the limb from the shoulder, crying out as pain lanced through the bleeding arm.

He had no time to see the wound as he quickly rolled to the side as another creature came crashing down on the very spot he used to be just seconds ago. Quickly getting to his feet and retrieved Kalki, already the numbers in front of him grew to dozens of creatures.

Just as the lead creature let out an ear-piercing cry, the rest of the creatures charged forwards. Gunnar quickly tightened his grip on the Kalki and swept the glowing axe in front of him. A wave of ice surged sideways to his right, completely blocking the charging creatures, and creating a new wall of ice parallel to the first wall.

The truck was still being attacked from the sides and back but now the front is cleared enough of the creatures to make forward momentum. The walls of ice created a clear channel through the swarm and stopped the creatures from bogging the truck. However, the surrounding swarm was already climbing over the wall of ice spearing themselves on top of the walls as cracks as well as swarming around at the end of the open path and charging straight through the channel directly at the truck.

There was no time to lose.

"GUNNAR GET IN!" Maranda yelled out of the driver side window.

Gunnar turned to the truck and slammed his fist onto the driver's door. "GO! NOW!" He shouted as he heard a piercing cry from behind him, turning and using the momentum to cleave Kalki into the neck of a charging creature and slam Eldur into the second with a follow-up swing.

"WE'RE NOT LEAVING YOU!" Maranda insisted. Suddenly a creature leaped over Gunnar and slammed onto the door. A scream could be heard from inside as the creatures attacking the side of the truck nearest to Gunnar started tearing enough holes into the hull to create a widening gap. Rifle fire from within can be heard as flashes can be seen firing out of the holes and into the creatures attacking the truck.

There was no time. "GO NOW! SAVE OUR PEOPLE!" Gunnar roared out as he charged and tackled into the first creature. Gunnar then proceeded to carry the creature through and barrel into the other creatures attacking the truck.

Soon he heard the reeving of the truck's engine, the wheels spinning and digging into the snow before the truck sped forwards and up the stakes of ice. Gunnar watched as the armored truck entered the channel as the screams of the dying creatures in it's path filled the air.

Gunnar then threw the frantic creature away before sweeping Kalki and Eldur in wide arcs in front of him. Keeping the creatures at bay and even hitting a few that came to close.

As Gunnar backed away from the literal horde gathered in front of him, he took one last look behind him and saw the rapidly shrinking truck in the distance as the creatures gave chase.

A sad but accomplished smile grew on his face. His people will make it. Maranda, his son, and the remaining survivors will make it.

Just as Gunnar was about to turn away, he saw something suddenly appear from the black clouds above. His blood froze at the sight.

From a distance, it was truly MASSIVE. A bulbous monstrosity two or even three times the height of an armored truck and four times as wide. It had multiple amber glowing eyes like horrific headlights, giant orange balloon-like pustules on both sides of it's body, and two giant meaty pincers and spindly legs dangling underneath it.

And this massive thing was descending rapidly towards the escaping truck.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Gunnar turned to run but something tackled him onto the ground. Gunnar desperately clawed at the snow, to get up, but he felt something stab into his back, eliciting an agonizing cry from him and stopped any further attempts of moving.

Gunnar watched helplessly as the flying bulbous monstrosity flew down and picked up the armored truck with it's massive claws, he could hear his people screaming in horror as it started floating back up into the air. Carrying the last remnants of Gunnar's family.

Gunnar yelled out. Screamed. Cried out in desperation. But he watched helplessly as the flying monstrosity disappeared high into the stormy night sky.

Gunnar couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. All he could do was cry.

Soon the creatures remaining on the ground turned their attention towards him. The first creature leaped at him, maws open and fanged teeth bare for him to see.

Gunnar welcomed his death as his world soon turned to darkness.

'WAKE UP.'

Gunnar's eyes shot wide open before wincing close, feeling his wounds become agitated. His body sores all over, both exhaustion and no doubt the bruises he took.

His lungs greedily took in precious air as Gunnar felt the warm humid air enter his mouth.

Wait… warm? Humid?

Suddenly it all came back.

The camp. The attack. The horrifying monstrosities. The truck being carried off!

Gunnar's eyes opened once more and stayed open. But what he immediately saw he wished he never had opened his eyes.

Everywhere he looked there was pulsating alien-like flesh all around. The walls were made of maroon vein-like muscle and chitin, the floor was a pulsating purple skin, the ceiling had rows of ACTUAL teeth growing out of it. But the most noticeable feature was the pool of green steaming liquid in the center of the room.

Gunnar started to panic as he desperately tried moving his arms and legs but found them restrained. He looked down and almost retched as his entire lower body up to his biceps was encased in some sort of… of… tube of FLESH!

Gunnar tried his hardest to free his arms, hands, ANYTHING! However, the more he struggled the tighter the tube got, nearly crushing him.

"I suggest you stop. It will tighten it's grip on you the more you struggle."

A voice! A person!?

Gunnar looked all over the room but could not see anyone.

Then he saw him. Off to the far right just out of sight is a young-looking man, possibly no older than his son and just as tall. He has short black hair, orange eyes and wearing a white but tattered looking lab coat open to reveal a black turtleneck sweater, black pants, and black boots.

Overall, this man looked distinctly human and looked completely out of place compared to the environment they were in, and that is what set off Gunnar's warning bells. This man was too calm, too collected. The very air around him exudes an almost unnatural amount of confidence.

Whoever this man was, he was not normal.

"How perspective of you Gunnar Gratt." The unknown man said, shocking Gunnar. How in the world did he know his name!? Who exactly is he!?

"Who I am is of no concern to you. As for how I knew your name, it's was a simple task of extracting the information from your mind." The man explained as he walked up to Gunnar.

Now that he was closer, Gunnar noticed how the unknown man's eyes seemed to stare deeply into his own. Gunnar could not look away as if something is keeping him from looking away. The edges of his vision and the background seemed to blur out as all he could see was-

Suddenly the man looked away, snapping Gunnar out of whatever trance he was in. "What was that…" Gunnar asked.

"The very first words of the very first human I make contact with on this world it is in the form of a question. How… predictable." The unknown man said a slight hint of disappointment can be heard in his tone.

Gunnar had many questions now. Extracting information? First human? Gunnar soon found his voice. "Where am I!? Who the hell are you!? Where are my people!? WHERE IS MY SON!?" Gunnar demanded, his tone still horse.

The man looked at Gunnar once more, his orange eyes staring deeply into his. "You're in a chamber of my Lair. And as for who I am… you will address me as Ceres. I am the one who sent those you aptly named 'Creatures' to collect your people." The now named Ceres answered.

Gunnar glared at this Ceres. "You sent those monsters!? My people… where are they!?" Gunnar demanded once more.

Ceres showed absolutely no hint of emotion. Not in his posture, not on his face, and definitely not in those eyes of his. Gunnar doubts the man was intimidated nor concerned, after all, it was he who is at Ceres's complete mercy.

But Gunnar couldn't afford to show weakness. He must know what happened to his people.

"As expected of one such as yourself." Ceres simply stated. "Always caring for others. You have sacrificed much to get those who followed you this far. But it's all for naught." The unknown man turned away from Gunnar as if contemplating a thought. "Your people are in my possession now. I will be running my tests and experiments on them before disposing of them. Rest assured I will use them extensively."

All Gunnar saw is red. "YOU FUCKER! LET MY PEOPLE GO! WHAT HAVE WE EVER DONE TO YOU!?" Gunnar yelled struggling against his restraints. He glared murderously at the back of this ma- no- monster's head.

Ceres turned around and settled his gaze back on Gunnar's own glaring eyes in a calm manner, seemingly unfazed by Gunnar's outburst. "You're angry. Angry at me because I have the remnants of your people in my possession and… fearful of their demise." The man then neared Gunnar, standing just a few feet away. "Understandable, humans have a tendency to let their own emotions and beliefs control their decisions, no matter the risks involved. That's what makes humans so predictable and yet so driven and tenacious. It's honestly an admirable trait." The man explained, confusing Gunnar. "However, right now it does nothing for you. You question why I attacked your people and what sort of… vendetta… I have against them. I have none." Ceres said, staring deeply into his eyes.

Gunnar's breath turned ragged with boiling anger. "Bullshit! You sent those monsters against my people! Killed dozens of my people! WHY DID YOU ATT-!" Gunnar's jaw suddenly slammed shut by an unseen force, nearly biting his tongue off.

"As I said, your emotions do nothing for you now. The reason why I attacked your people and why I have the remnant's in my possession is because I needed information about this world I currently find myself in." Ceres explained as Gunnar struggled to open his mouth. "As you have already guessed. I am not human. And before you ask, I am not a Faunus nor am I the species you call Grimm. You can say I and the Brood that attacked your camp are not from this world."

Gunnar's eyes widened. He wanted to speak out, wanted to call his lie, but his mouth is forced shut.

Ceres continued. "I arrived at this world by… an accident of sorts. I wish to simply return home, but the method of which is still far beyond what I can currently do now with my Brood. So in order to achieve my goals of returning home, I found the mine, the same one you and your people were going to colonize, filled with the necessary resources you call Dust to sustain my Brood as well as eventually achieve my next set of plans of leaving this world. In the meantime I simply wish to leave this world and it's denizens alone and unaware of my existence and that of my Brood."

Gunnar's glare softened slightly into a stern frown. Why is he telling him all this? How does he know for sure if this is all the truth? For all Gunnar knows this Ceres is lying and readying an invasion.

"If I were to invade this world, then this world will very well be under my control by next month, and nothing you and the other four kingdoms can do anything about it." Ceres said in an off-handed tone.

Gunnar frowned. Does he truly believe he can topple the four Kingdoms? Let alone Atlas? Despite's it's misgivings, Atlas is the closest and most powerful Kingdom that stood the test of time against the Grimm. No number of horrific creatures in Ceres's 'Brood' can topple the kingdom down.

'I know I can, 1st Lieutenant Gunnar Gratt of the 24th Atlas Infantry Company.'

Gunnar's eyes widened as he heard Ceres's voice in his head. The same voice that woke him up.

Can he read hi-

'Your mind is open to me. I know everything you know. All the information I needed about this world and about the military might of Atlas came from your mind. You used to be part of the Atlas Military, you, and those soldiers amongst your people. Your company went to quell a mining riot, but your commanding officer wanted to execute the rioters, but you did not want that. When the bullets were fired, you personally executed your own commanding officer, took the remaining miners and their families, your loyal soldiers and left Atlas.' Ceres 'spoke' to him once again, sending a shiver down his spine as his mouth was still shut tight.

He was right. If Ceres knows about that day, then he must truly know about everything he knows about Atlas, the fleet, the contingencies in place for the kingdom, how they run, the political figures.

Gunnar mutely stared at Ceres. But that still begs the question. Why did you capture my people if all you needed for information was one individual?

"You and your people have provided me with the information I needed about this world and how dangerous humanity is to my growing Brood. You and your people were also a perfect test to see how my Brood would fair against a organized force of trained soldiers and elite warriors you call Huntsmen and Huntresses. Now I know my Brood can sufficiently face whatever threat humanity can throw me with relative success. But I still need to experiment with this barrier you all utilize called 'Aura'. Fortunately, your people will help me in that regard." Ceres explained, using his own voice.

Gunnar then felt the unknown force leave his mouth. His mouth opened to take in calming breaths. He is allowed to speak. "Please I beg of you. Just let my people go! You said you didn't want to be bothered! I swear my people will- UMPH!" Gunnar's mouth once again shut close, as Ceres's eyes stared passively into his own.

"Yes I did say I wish to leave the denizens of this world alone and unaware. But your people are now fully aware of my presence here. If I let even one of you go alive, your people will spread the word of my Brood in this region and this will attract attention that I do not want to my Brood. So you and all those who came here will have to die, but rest assured your people's deaths will not be wasted." Ceres simply said as he turned around and walked away.

Suddenly Gunnar suddenly felt tired, his vision distorting around the edges and started fading in and out of consciousness. The blurry form of the man known as Ceres became smaller and smaller as his vision slowly turned black.

But just before everything went dark, a voice echoed in his head.

'Thank you for the information. Goodbye.'

Ceres walked out of the chamber, already sensing his psionics shutting down the vital functions of the one named Gunnar. It was a painless death, one that Ceres can afford to give to the human who had experienced nothing but suffering and self-sacrifice most of his life.

Ceres felt no remorse of what he had done, but soon felt it was appropriate to thank the human in his last few seconds of life. After all, if it were not for the human and those that followed him to the mining compound then Ceres it would have taken an unknown amount of time to gather the necessary information he required about this world, it's denizens, and where their major civilizations are.

It's what the Terrans called 'common courtesy' if he remembered correctly.

Now Ceres has the necessary information to start expanding his Brood. Already he allocated three entire groups of Drones with escorts to comb the other surrounding mountains for any more of the Dust minerals.

However, Ceres couldn't help but think back to what the human thought about, how he truly believed this so-called 'Kingdom of Atlas' is some unsurmountable fortress and is considered the most powerful kingdom amongst the four all around the world.

Ceres saw the human's memories, saw the capabilities of the Atlas's own military through the eyes of Gunnar's past. In time Ceres's Brood will grow large enough to overmatch whatever Atlas is able to field against him, but until then Ceres will keep his Brood discreet and the rest of the world unaware as long as possible.

But among the lessons the human Gunnar and his 'people' have taught Ceres, is that staying quiet and discreet will only work so far. Eventually, someone from Atlas will eventually come to this area for whatever purpose and will discover his Brood, and their disappearance by Ceres's hands will no doubt attract even more attention.

Ceres must make contingency plans for this eventuality, but for now he has some experiments to run.

He entered another chamber, a room filled with many humans from Gunnar's group all restrained and arrayed in front of him for his choosing. Every one of these humans was put into a psionic induced coma, less resistance when he needs to do his experiments.

He walked up to the nearest human. A young man with blonde hair and the very son of the human Gunnar.

He shall be the first of many.

'WAKE UP.'

AN:

And that's a wrap. Took me some time to get this chapter out as you can see. Written over 20,000 words up to this point because of so much stuff that was happening.

Usually when I take some time to get a chapter out it usually means it's either long like this one, writers block, or life kicking/punching me in the face.

Anyway, as a Fanfic author I like to make sure when I am gone for a long while I come back with an extra long chapter. Seems unfair if I go on hiatus for three months then come back with only a 1,000 word chapter.

Now time to answer some questions:

1)Is Gunnar and his people really the Tundra Wolves bandits? Why don't they act like it?

The only bandits we see in RWBY was the Branwen Tribe led by Raven. Since they were the only reference to what bandits are like in RWBY the common trope is to make every bandit inherently evil and selfish.

I wanted to deviate from that trope and Gunnar's people are only Bandits in the eyes of the Kingdom of Atlas, a Kingdom that is very patriotic and seen as the forefront of Faunus racism and corporation corruption and social hierarchy gap.

With a kingdom like that Gunnar's group will be easily labeled as Bandits when in actuality they are people who are trying to survive in a world that doesn't want them. They only raid military transports out of complete necessity and overall are people brought together because of a kingdom that sees them as nothing as criminals.

The key is that Gunnar's people never call themselves bandits or criminals, they are just people looking for a new home. No one cares for them but themselves. So no one would really notice if they say… disappeared.

2)Why weren't Gunnar's soldiers immediately steamed rolled by Zerg? Why was Ceres holding back?

As Ceres explained he was testing his forces against a militarized force, meaning he's testing the waters and seeing how a group of trained soldiers on Remnant reacts to his Zerg and the simple tactics they employ.

Also Ceres is a strategist. He's not going to use all his cards on the first turn.

3)Why didn't Ceres negotiate with Gunnar in the first place? Why did he go ahead and kill them all? Why can't he mind wipe them or something?

The morals of Ceres cannot be understood from a humanistic set of morals. Remember, Ceres used to be a Cerebrate that was born with the initial purpose of keeping Kerrigan Safe, things like morals and empathy is something the Zerg as a whole lacks. Kerrigan is the exception since she was first a HUMAN turned ZERG and she was the sole source of empathy in the Zerg Swarm.

Ceres is born a Zerg first, meaning he was never human or grew up as a human. He is calculating, merciless, and pragmatic all the traits I believe a highly intelligent Cerebrate has when leading the Zerg Swarm.

So as to why he didn't negotiate first. He saw too many risks of exposure and attention from the outside world and he also saw a perfect source for information about the World of Remnant.

Weighing the risks and rewards, he took the route of best results for his Brood and thus did what he did.

As for why he didn't simply wipe their memories. There's a saying, dead men tell no tales.

4)Will Atlas catch wind of Ceres?

You'll just have to wait and see.

Since I've been gone for so long I decided to add an Omake. Now this one is different compared to my other ones.

Since I discontinued Remnant of the Swarm I also had to scrap the numerous ideas I had for the story and major plot points. I feel like I cheated my readers who were looking forward to seeing certain plot points where Ceres/the Zerg is going to be in.

So for the omake and future omakes, I'm going to put my previous plot ideas as omakes. I hope this satisfies you.

Keep in mind these omakes are entirely just story ideas I had for my previous story that I thought would be amazing to read, fun in general, or was planning to implement. So don't expect perfection.

OMAKE:

Battle of Beacon

Cinder gazed down at the destruction and chaos that is ensuing below. Grimm was pouring into the street, the Atlas's proud Atlesian knights turned on their masters and the people of Vale alike, Huntsmen, Atlas Soldiers, and Civilians alike were being slaughtered wholesale.

It was glorious. Beacon will fall, Atlas's own weapons will be the stake that drives the division between the kingdoms, and her Mistress will be one step closer to achieving her goal.

Tonight will be known as one of the greatest tragedies that will divide the kingdoms that Ozpin and his unknowing pawns had worked so hard to create. But for her and her mistress, it's merely the beginning of the end.

"Beautiful." Cinder simply said. Watching as the little boys and girls playing Huntsmen and Huntresses were fighting desperately against the Grimm and Atlesian Knights alike.

"It's almost sad…" Emerald said, Cinder hearing the sad tone in her voice. "It's horrendous." Cinder simply replied with a sinister smile. She then turned her attention to Mercury. "Focus on the Atlesian Knights." Cinder ordered.

Mercury was already streaming the entire scene below with scroll in hand. "I'm getting all of it." Mercury replied with a smile of his own, no doubt enjoying the scene playing out down below.

Cinder nodded. "Continue the broadcast until the end." Just as she finished those words, the entire ground shook. "You wouldn't want to miss what happens next."

A sound of distant pounding made Cinder and her two close aides turn to the noise behind them.

"KKREEEIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

The mountain in the far distance exploded as a massive Grimm Wyvern burst free, attracted by all the negativity and flew over Vale and straight for Beacon's tower. Black tar-like droplets melted off the Wyvern's form and rained all along behind the Grimm. From the black tar more creatures of Grimm were created, adding to the already numberless Grimm pouring into Vale and Beacon.

Absolutely beautiful.

"Emerald. When Mercury is finished, make your way to the extraction point." Cinder ordered.

Emerald as always obediently answered. "Yes Cinder. We'll-"

Cinder suddenly felt a horrible migraine, nearly tripping her on her own two feet. The migraine then just as suddenly turned into a full-blown headache as she couldn't hear anything, gritting her teeth in pain.

Then as suddenly as it appeared it's gone. Cinder breathed heavily as sweat trickled down her face.

"Awww god what the hell was that?"

"C-Cinder… are you ok?" Emerald asked and from the pained tone, Cinder wasn't the only one who experienced the sudden deafening headache.

Before Cinder could reply she was interrupted once again.

'Denizens of Vale.'

That voice… it couldn't be. But he's was supposed to be dead!?

'I have watched from the sidelines, walked amongst your kind and even sought peace with your Council.' The voice echoed in her head said.

'I have stayed out of your battles, content to watch, to not interfere…'

Cinder looked down at the Academy courtyard, seeing students fighting a desperate battle against the Grimm, Atlesian Knights, and the White Fang. But she also noticed many were distracted. Are they also hearing the voice?

'I have watched as you turn on one another, through the faults of both humans and Faunus regardless of the Grimm. But I have stayed my hand. Content to not interfere and leave this world without a word.'

Ceres… Ceres was still alive!? How could he be still alive!? He was supposed to be dead! Her allies assured her as such!

Did they fail?

'But now I know those views are naïve. To the Grimm that plague this world. To the White Fang who wear the masks of Beasts and Monsters. To any who align themselves with the one who orchestrated this attack. I will say one thing to you all...'

'Look up.'

A confused frown marred Cinder's face, until a dark shadow covered her and the building she was standing on.

She then heard a startled gasp from Emerald and the clattering of Mercury's scroll falling off his hands and onto the ground.

Cinder saw the horrified expression on their faces, both looking upwards in the same direction.

Cinder looked up and balked at what she saw.

She couldn't even begin to describe what she was looking at. It's sheer size covered the entirety of the night sky, blotting out the shattered moon and descending through the clouds above.

It was as if the moon itself was descending onto Vale, if the moon is lined with tower sized spines and it's sheer size dwarfed all of Vale under it's shadow.

Cinder noticed it has gotten noticeably quieter.

'Look up and see your end. Those who fashion themselves as martyrs. Those who seek blood and violence. Those who see themselves untouchable. From this day forth, no longer will I be on the sidelines, no longer will I be content of letting those who attacked me escape this kingdom alive…'

'No longer will I stand idly by while those who plotted my downfall still breathes.'

A cold dread ran down Cinder's back at those words. She knew those words were directed at her.

'From this day forth… the Zerg marches to war.'

With that there was silence. Only the staccato of gunfire and the roar of Grimm can be heard all around.

"Emerald. Mercury. Retreat to the extraction point. Things have changed."

"C-Cinder I won't-"

"Emerald! Do as I say! I still have time to retrieve the Fall Maiden and escape." Cinder explained.

"Y-Yeah." Mercury interjected. "We still have Grimm and the Atlesian Knights attacking through the city. That thing up there is too big! There is no way it can kill all the Grimm!" Mercury said, his tone suggests that not even he is convinced of what he just said.

However, Cinder didn't care about any of that. Because as she looked up to the sky, it started to rain down on Vale.

Location: Beacon Courtyard

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!? WHO WAS THAT!?"

"I DON'T CARE! JUST KEEP FIGHTING!"

Weiss sliced through an Atlesian Knight before speeding pass three more, leaving behind sliced scrap heaps.

She then stopped and used a white glyph to launch a group of White Fang high into the air as they fell hard onto the ground.

Weiss took a moment to catch her breath, she has been fighting non-stop from the fairgrounds to the Beacon courtyard with Blake. Speaking of Blake, she was blazing through the White Fang by the dozens, those Faunuses have absolutely no chance against a trained Huntress of Blake's caliber.

Weiss also couldn't help but look back up at the massive THING in the sky. The voice she heard in her head was Ceres's, there was no mistaking it. And whatever that thing up there is, it belonged to him and his Zerg.

Weiss remembered Ceres telling her and the others about how Zerg travels through space in giant living spaceships called Leviathans. At first she dismissed it as impossible, how can a living breathing ship travel through the cold vacuum of space, it was preposterous to think about.

But now she's eating and figuratively choking on those very words. Just what does Ceres face back wherever he came from that needs massive space-faring beast like the one in the sky?

"Weiss! Are you alright!?"

Weiss brought her gaze away from the Leviathan and saw a worried Blake. "I'm alright! Did you hear Ceres!?"

"Heard him? His voice was directly in my head! And by the looks of things he sent that message to everyone in Vale!" Blake deduced, seeing students and civilians alike running and pointing at the giant Leviathan in the sky.

Weiss couldn't help but agree. "You don't think he would attack the city with THAT do you?" Weiss asked, looking up to the Leviathan.

Blake gave a hesitant frown. "I don't know? But I don't how he would-"

"RAAGH!"

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!"

Weiss as well as Blake heard the desperate shouting of the remaining Atlas Soldiers, turning their head towards the main courtyard they saw three Paladins smashing aside the gathered soldiers like rag dolls.

Before Weiss could charge in, a Bullhead, one the White Fang used to ferry Grimm onto Beacon, was knocked out of the sky by a Gryphon and descended downwards, a large black figure hopped out of the crashing Bullhead.

The figure was a Alpha Beowolf as it landed and charged the nearest Atlesian Soldiers.

Weiss also saw the White Fang running back towards the docks. They were in full retreat.

Weiss then looked to Blake as they shared a look, however, before they could run off, someone caught their attention. "WEISS! BLAKE!"

"YANG!?" Blake shouted out in surprise as the blonde brawler of their team ran up to them. "Are you two alright!?" Yang quickly asked, earning a nod from both Weiss herself and Blake.

Weiss then noticed someone missing. "Where's Ruby!?"

"Ruby went to Ironwood's ship to stop the hare wire robots before I could stop her! Anyway did you hear that message!? Was that who I think it was!?" Yang asked.

Blake nodded. "It was Ceres! And it seems he brought his own backup!" Blake answered as she pointed to the Leviathan.

Yang looked up and shared a look with Weiss and Blake. "I hope he has a plan! Because- LOOK OUT!"

"RRAAAWWW-" *BANG!*

The Beowolf that was about to attack Weiss from behind was shot back by Yang's gauntlet. As it's body evaporated, Weiss heard more screaming and sounds of battle from the courtyard, now seeing the students from Beacon and the other academies fighting the three Paladin Mechs as well as keeping the Grimm and Knights at bay.

Despite what occurred, they still have lives to save. "We can stand here all night about what Ceres is going to do! Or! We can help take down those Paladins!" Weiss exclaimed.

Both Blake and Yang nodded. "Let's go!" Blake said, already sprinting forwards towards the Paladins.

Weiss and Yang were right behind Blake, cutting through a few Grimm and a dozen Knights just to get to the Paladins.

The three giant mechs were holding their own against the other students, Yatsuhashi blocked one of the Paladin's metal fist but was sent flying back. Coco was unloading her minigun into another Paladin while Neptune, Sun, and Nadir worked together to distract the third.

The rest were fending off the surrounding Grimm and Knights alongside the remnants of the Atlas Soldiers. However, the more they killed, the more Grimm came pouring in.

Suddenly Weiss saw Yang leaping at the nearest Paladin, fist cocked back to deliver a powerful haymaker. However, the Paladin rotated it's entire upper body and back handed Yang out of the air. It then transformed it's arms into cannons and aimed at the prone form of Yang.

Suddenly Blake leaped at the Paladin and sliced her blades at it's arms, knocking the cannons away just in time as they fired and missed Yang. Weiss followed up with a straight stab right into the Paladin's main optics, knowing from the last time she fought a Paladin. She then pulled her rapier out and spun her Dust chamber. With a click, she swept her blade up and encased the Paladin in a wave of ice, restraining it for the moment.

However, before Weiss could react, a large metal fist smashed into her side, her aura flared to absorb the hit but it still sent her flying away and skidding across the ground.

As soon as she came to a stop, Weiss picked herself up, only to see a salvo of missiles soaring directly at her.

"I GOT YOU!" A new figure jumped in front of Weiss wielding two blue digitized blades that were exactly like Blake's before sending arcs of blue energy against the missiles. The arcs of energy sliced through each of the missile, causing them to explode just meters away from the figure.

"Velvet!" Weiss exclaimed, finally recognizing the figure as the shy rabbit Faunus of Team CFVY. Velvet turned her head to look at Weiss. "Get up Weiss!"

Weiss quickly picked herself off the ground, Myrtenaster in her left hand and poised ready to strike down the approaching Paladin.

Suddenly a explosion blasted both Weiss and Velvet off their feet as they flew and crashed past the paladins in front of them. Weiss was dazed as she saw the yellow mane of Yang's hair approaching her through her blurry eyes.

"WEISS! Are you okay!?" Yang exclaimed.

"What in the world hit me..." Weiss drowsily asked.

Her question was soon answered as the entire area was bombarded with missile and cannon fire. The other students were either blasted back or forced to retreat from the sudden barrage, Weiss saw Coco being blasted back and crashed behind Velvet, Flint and Neo ran pass Weiss and Yang as the other student retreated and took positions in front of Weiss.

In front of the students were all three, albeit beaten up, Paladins. Suddenly a new Paladin join them but this one was completely different. It had more armour plating, an insectoid like appearance and overall a more menacing look.

All four Paladins transformed their arms in cannons, pointing directly them directly at the gathered students.

"Hey there's only four of them! We can take them!"

Suddenly from all sides, the remaining Atlesian Knights as well as the Grimm surrounded the group, training guns and growling respectively.

"You just HAD to say it Sun!"

Weiss slowly stood up, using Myrtenaster to steady herself. Standing beside her are yang and Blake, weapons at the ready and staring against the venerable army in front of them.

"Any last words anyone?" Coco asked as she revved up her minigun.

"Yeah! Don't die!" Yang shouted, earning her a few resounding shouts in reply.

However, before anything could be done. Weiss heard a faint but loud shriek from abo-

"EVERYONE! TAKE COVER!" Weiss shouted out, throwing herself onto the ground.

The air was suddenly filled with large purple pods as they screamed through the air and came crashing down all over the Beacon. Dozens upon dozens of pods smashed into the courtyard and into the school itself, destroying concrete and shattering glass.

Fortunately the pods smashed into the surrounding army of rouge Knights and horde of Grimm, crushing dozens and blasting away entire groups. However, as the pods rained down all over beacon, Weiss also saw pods raining down in the distance into Vale. It didn't take many guesses to know that these very pods came from the Leviathan above, but why is it barraging the city?

"SKKKREEEEEEEEEEIIIIII!"

Suddenly Weiss heard it. The unmistakable cry of Ceres's Zerg. From the dozens of craters where the pods fell, the Zerg came pouring out. Grimm and Knights nearest to the craters were set upon by the Zerg, ripped and torn apart withing second as more continued to pour out of the craters. In what seemed to be in seconds, the entire courtyard was swarming with Zerg, all Weiss recognized from what Ceres has shared and showed Team RWBY.

The knights and Paladins turned as did the Grimm to face this new threat. Knights fired their guns as they stood and were tackled and torn apart by the Zerglings in their hundreds. The Paladins charge forwards and started wadding their way through the onrushing swarm, crushing many and blasting entire portions back. The Grimm, scattered by the barrage, fought a chaotic and scattered battle against the Zerg on a scale only possible by two seemingly numberless forces.

All over the courtyard, the Grimm were being slaughtered wholesale as more Grimm poured in to reinforce. The pods kept raining down, sending fresh new Zerg into the meat grinder that was the battle. Ursas were barreling through the smaller Zerg but were stopped in their tracks by the giant Roaches. The Gryphons and Nevermores from above, dodging and weaving through the torrential downpour of pods were being shot down by the massive Hydralisks. The Zerglings in their hundreds dragged down any Grimm before tearing them apart piece by piece.

The last of the Knights were torn apart and only left four – no correction- three Paladins left. The first was beset by four Roaches as they spewed their acidic saliva, melting down the Paladin as it exploded violently.

Weiss stood dumbstruck by all this. Just seconds ago they were on their last legs. Now the Grimm are being pushed back.

This was Ceres's doing. Was this his plan?

'From this day forth… the Zerg marches to war.'

No. This was just the beginning.

Location: Vale, Market District

"I'M OUT!"

"TAKE A RIFLE FROM THE GROUND GENIUS!"

"THEY JUST KEEP COMING!"

"KEEP FIRING! DON'T LET UP!"

"THIS IS GREY FOX TO ANYONE WHO CAN HEAR US! WE ARE CUTOFF! WE HAVE CIVILIANS GENERAL IRONWOOD WITH US! I REPEAT! WE HAVE CIVILIANS AND GENERAL IRONWOOD WITH US! WE NEED EXTRACTION! IS ANYONE OUT THERE!"

James shot another Rogue Knight, shattering it's head before smashing his cybernetic fist into the body of another.

Jame's uniform is in tatters, his coat was gone, his black shirt is torn in half revealing his cybernetic half. Fortunately, his pants, boots and utility belt were still intact.

After the crash, James fought his way through the streets, his Knights were hacked, his ships were destroyed, his own flagship is under the hands of a criminal, and Grimm are pouring into the kingdom.

And now a giant alien monstrosity is flying over the kingdom, raining down god knows what into Vale.

James smashed aside another Knight before spinning the pistol in his hand and fired off three shots hitting three separate knights each.

He recently came across a squad of soldiers defending a café located at a three-way street against a full company of Rogue Knights. He joined the defenders in protecting the civilians sheltered inside, acting as the forward defense and distraction while his soldiers provided supporting fire.

But still, the number of Knights in front of him is getting too dangerous for him to handle.

"GENERAL! THEY'RE COMING FROM THE SIDES!"

James smashed a Knight before seeing whole companies of knights marching from the streets to his left and right. A new hail of bullet zipped passed him, a few of the bullets hitting him as he sprinted back and leaped over the tables and chairs that were used to make a barricade. "Keep firing men! We must hold them back! OPERATOR! WHERE'S OUR EXTRACTION!"

"I CAN'T GET A SIGNAL! OUR COMMUNICATIONS ARE DEAD!" The Operator replied.

"Dammit!" James cursed as he turned back and fired his gun at the approaching army of Rogue Knights. His gun suddenly clicked, signaling he ran out of bullets.

Cursing once more, he flipped his empty revolver and held it by the barrel, ready to smash aside any Knights.

The entire café was being riddled with bullets, the knights weren't letting up and mercilessly gunning his men down. He saw a soldier took a bullet to the head, as he fell back a single hole was seen.

"GUN NUT IS DOWN!" A soldier behind the cashier table yelled out.

"INCOMING FROM THE RIGHT!" A soldier cried out before James saw an Atlesian Paladin slide in the middle of the intersection and right in front of the café, it's red glowing visor glaring directly at his men.

It then transformed it's arms into built-in energy cannons, aiming directly at the Café.

"GET DOWN!"

BTOOOM!

The entire café exploded in a raging fire, and for the second time today, James found his entire world is engulfed in fire and debris. When everything settled, Ironwood opened his eyes, seeing the destruction of the café. Everything was destroyed, tables were burning, a smoldering crater shattered the floor, and the entire front of the café was demolished.

But that all paled in comparison to the bodies of his men, loyal soldiers of Atlas, all strewn about, all dead.

James, with a grunt of pain, picked himself off the ground. He then limped outside and came face to face with the Atlesian Paladin and hundreds of Rogue Knights.

In the face of his death, James could say he did not falter and stood defiant against the very weapons meant to protect those who needed them.

Suddenly, as one the knights turned their guns away from him and pointed down the street to the right, the Paladin doing the same. This confused James, the only reason these drones would draw away their guns is to face an even more dangerous threat.

Then he felt it, the earth started to quake under his feet, shattered glass and loose debris rattled against the ground.

James then looked down the street to his right, towards where the Rogue Knights are marching towards.

Then as the quakes reached it's apex, what came around the far corner of the street nearly toppled James off his feet in shock.

A massive monstrous BEAST came bounding around the corner leading a venerable FLOOD of creatures down the street. It's sheer size nearly took up the entire street, bounding on four massive trunks for legs, a massive wall of a head adorned with thick boney spikes, four enormous curved blades for arms splayed wide as it came barreling down the street towards the Rogue Atlas drones.

The Rogue Knights immediately opened fire on the Beast as the Paladin flipped up it's metal fists and met the Beast's charge. The Atlesian Paladin-290 is the latest and most advanced battle mech to date. It's hydraulics can withstand the weight of more than five tons, it's weapon's arsenal can kill swaths of Grimm within seconds, and armor thick enough to withstand a charging Megalith.

So one can imagine James's dread when he saw the Beast raise it's left bladed limb and smashed the Paladin into a side building without stopping. The Paladin completely bisected and left a destroyed mess of metal.

Then the Beast proceeded to trample through the Rogue knights, it's sheer mass and bulk barreled on through the knights like a tank through a glasshouse. The Beast soon bounded past the Café, shaking the entire building as the flood of creatures following it torn apart and destroyed any Knights still left standing.

James then saw another Beast like the last one bound pas the café, then another one, then another one, then so forth. All of them ignoring Ironwood standing just to the side of the onrushing swarm of nightmarish creatures and overwhelming monstrosities.

James knew for a fact who these monstrosities belong to. After all, he made a declaration of war against the White Fang, the Grimm, and Salem's agents.

As he watched the endless flood of bodies, James picked up an intact chair and sat down.

For once in his entire career as a General and working with Ozpin, he felt pity for Salem, for her minions have poked the belly of the beast and that beast is named Ceres.

Location: Beacon, Beacon Docks.

Adam Taurus. A name that strikes fear into the hearts of all those who dare go against him.

He had lead raids, killed those that dared to oppress the Faunus, spilled the blood of the guilty, and lead his brothers and sisters against those who continue to oppress them.

Tonight was supposed to be the night where the White Fang makes their mark. Tonight the institution that supports the oppression of Faunus supposed to fall by their hands. Tonight, it was supposed to be the reunion he was waiting for months for, to finally exact his revenge against the one who betrayed him and all the White Fang stood for.

Tonight was supposed to be easy, Vale in chaos, the Huntsmen too busy to stop the White Fang, and the very kingdom at the forefront of Faunus oppression blamed for the atrocities in Vale.

Adam and his brothers of the White Fang were prepared to die as martyrs to bring down Vale, to bring down the hierarchy that puts Faunus at the bottom, to finally get the revenge he so rightly deserves.

It went all so well…

"G-GET AWAY! AUURRGG!" "SKREEEEIIII!"

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"HELP ME! HELP ME!"

"NO! NOOOO! NOOOOOO!" "CCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE THINGS!"

"THEY'RE COMING FROM THE GROU-" "SKRRAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Adam drew his blade an inch from it's scabbard to block and heavy strike of the monstrous serpent in front of him. He quickly knocked the creature's claw to the side before firing off all the built-up energy held in his blade at the beast.

The serpent cried it's last as it was bisected diagonally in two. Adam had no time to rest as he quickly sheathed Wilt and cut down three more of the lizard abominations charging for him.

He then quickly blocked a flurry of deadly projectiles with an inch of his blade, the kinetic energy absorbed into his blade and filling his semblance back to full with just a few hits.

With full energy, he let loose his attack. The world became dark as a single slash of Wilt cut a swath into the horde in front of him.

Bisected bodies slumped onto the ground as the surviving White Fang behind him let loose a cheer of victory. Adam himself took a moment to catch his breath but was almost tackled to the ground as a serpent came bursting out of the ground below him.

Adam quickly planted his foot on the thing's face and leaped off, landing on his feet a good distance behind the defensive line.

Immediately the small breathing room he made swelled with monstrosities once again. This same pattern already happened four times but each time the creature's numbers seemed endless.

Those retreating were fell upon by the swarm, torn apart without mercy. The Bullheads they brought to Vale were at the landing docks, already Adam could see a few flying off.

Adam gritted his teeth in anger. These creatures, these Zerg were supposed to be dealt with! The human was supposed to take care of them! Trust a human to fail and ruin all his plans.

"SIR! THE LAST BULLHEAD IS WAITING FOR YOU!" An unnamed White Fang with antlers informed him.

Adam nodded as he turned to those that bravely remained behind. "BROTHERS! YOU'RE YOUR GROUND! YOUR SACRIFICES WILL BE REMEMBERED!"

"FOR THE WHITE FANG!" The faunuses chanted out as they held against the creatures. Despite their fervor, they won't last long, only buying enough time for Adam to escape.

With this in mind, he sprinted to the last Bullhead, already seeing desperate White Fang to cowardly to fight trying to get on it but were being held back by some of his chosen.

"LET ME ON!"

"GET BACK! GO BACK AND JOIN THE FIGHT!"

"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

"I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!"

"THEY'RE COMING FOR US! WE'RE ALL DEAD!"

"STAY BACK! YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO-"

"THEY'RE COMING!"

Adam glanced back and saw the Zerg overwhelm the defenses and surged towards the remaining White Fang.

Thinking quickly, Adam sprinted faster and leaped over the gathered crowd and into the Bullhead's confines. "GO! NOW!" Adam shouted to the pilot.

The two White Fang holding back the crowd immediately hopped on the rapidly ascending Bullhead. A few of the cowards tried to hang onto the Bullhead, but as soon as the doors closed, they fell off.

The last thing Adam saw was the flood of Zerg tearing into the Faunuses left behind. They were cowards anyways; they will not be remembered.

However, Adam's blood boiled over as he slammed and closed fist against the Bullhead's hull. "EVERYTHING WENT WRONG!" Adam roared in fury, the other two occupants shared a fearful look.

"S-Sir? Are you-"

Adam was upon him, slamming the Faunus onto the ground, slamming his fist repeatedly into the Faunus's face over and over in fueled rage. "IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY REUNION! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUCCESSFUL! IT! WAS! SUPPOSED! TO! BE! MY! REVENGE!" With a final hard hit, Adam glared hatefully at the ruined bloody face of the Faunus below him, his fist stained with his blood.

Adam growled in leftover anger before standing up from the body. "Open the hatch and throw it over!" Adam ordered the remaining White Fang in the Bullhead.

However, before the Faunus could do anything, the Bullhead suddenly listed to the side, throwing Adam off his feet and slamming against the hull.

Furious, Adam made his way to the pilot. "What's going on!"

"I'm sorry sir! Bu- OH CRAP!" The pilot jerked the stick to the right as the Bullhead dodged something zooming past them.

Adam looked out the Bullhead window and saw hundreds of pods raining down onto Vale, the Amity Colosseum above Vale as Grimm of all shapes and sizes filled the skies, even the Grimm Wyvern was flying about and dropping more Grimm into Vale and Beacon.

However, just in front of the Bullhead were twelve other Bullheads. They were all retreating to the rendezvous point before heading back to the nearest White Fang base.

Suddenly a glowing green ball of fire slammed into one of the Bullheads, setting one of its turbines on fire as it made a crashing descent.

*Krrrt!* "What was that! Something hit Fang Hull 2!"

"HOLY! ABOVE US!"

Adam looked up and saw a venerable cloud of flying Zerg descending to Vale from the Moon-sized monstrosity in the sky.

Suddenly another Bullhead exploded as one of the flying Zerg crashed into it from above and exploded. Another Bullhead was suddenly speared through by a massive squid-like Zerg as it used it's three mandibles to tear the bullhead apart.

Adam's Bullhead suddenly listed to the side as the pilot tried dodging through the torrential downpour of flying Zerg. Suddenly the entire back half of the Bullhead exploded and torn away, the White Fang flew out and Adam grasped the passenger seat with all his strength.

The Bullhead came to a crashing descent towards the forest just outside of Vale.

Adam couldn't think as his world soon turned black.

Location: Vale

The Zerg. A various swarm that overwhelms all opposition and leaves nothing behind.

They know no fear, no mercy, and no remorse. When the Swarm goes to war, they bring numbers unseen and unsurmountable by any army. Each and every living creature is bred for the sole purpose of annihilating the Swarm's enemies.

The Leviathan. The single largest organism employed by the Zerg Swarm as their space-faring ship. It's covered in meters thick carapace armor, it's size dwarfs those of the Protoss and Terran ships, and is utilizes some of the most devastating bio-weapons the Swarm has evolved for such a grand organism.

A single Leviathan and spell doom for an unprotected and unprepared planet, able to drop an entire Brood's worth of Zerg to overwhelm any resistance.

Such as the case with Vale.

Thousands upon Thousands of Zerg were dropped directly into the Kingdom and now are swarming through the Kingdom's street like an unstoppable flood of tooth, claws, and chitin. The Grimm, the greatest enemy of Remnant's Humanity, fell by the hundreds against the Zerg.

The Grimm, much like the Zerg, were without number, without mercy, and without fear. However, faced against the Swarm, lead by an intelligent Hive Mind, the Grimm within the Kingdom of Vale were in chaos. Zerg and Grimm met head-on, like two separate seas crashing against each other to overpower the other.

However, the Zerg or their very one leading them already has battle experience against foes who used the Zerg against them. Faced enemies far more dangerous then the Grimm could ever compare to.

So the sea of black was slowly being overpowered and torn apart by the sea of teeth, claws, and stone-hard chitin of the Zerg.

With the ground battle was all but won, the Zerg directed their attention to the air. Grimm from the smallest Nevermores to the largest Gryphons conquered the skies, the Single Atlas Airship being the sole presence within the black filled sky.

From the very bowels of the Leviathan, eggs were incubated and hatched within seconds. Soon a venerable swarm of Zerg flyers rushed from the Leviathan to meet the Grimm in open-air battle.

The first to arrive were the Mutalisks and Scourges, the very backbones of the Zerg Fleet. Their numbers were near endless, their ability to shoot acidic Glave Wurms and suicidal capability to explode overwhelmed any and all oppositions within seconds. Their shrieking cries can be heard for miles, the Grimm fought back, crashing into the Mutalisks and tore into the Mantis flyers in close combat while those that met the Scourges met a violent death.

The second to arrive are the Corruptors. Feared amongst the Terrans and Protoss for their air superiority, however, the reason for the fearsome reputation of the Corruptor was not in it's ability to spit caustic acid nor it's ability to take hits, but to do one thing that no space-faring craft of the Terrans and Protoss are capable of.

Engage in close combat.

The Corruptor uses it's harpoon-like beak to punch into the steel hulls of Battle Cruisers and the hulls of Protoss warships and expose those within to the vacuum of cold space or to spew acid within their hulls. Their mandibles tear apart any captured aircraft in shreds, and that's is what the Grimm are experiencing firsthand.

Swarms of Corruptors collided into the flying Grimm, spearing their prey before tearing into their bodies with their mandibles and melting their insides with caustic acid. The Gryphons and Nevermores fought back with equal vigor but were horribly outmatched by the Corruptors.

"KKRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEIII!"

The piercing cry of the Grimm Wyvern shattered the air. The Wyvern flew through the swarm, battering aside any smaller Mutalisks and recoiling from any Scourges that exploded against it's black scaly hide. The Wyvern was being bogged down by the surrounding Zerg, but with another ear-deafening cry, a flock of Nevermores and Gryphons rallied to the giant Grimm, surrounding it's form in a black formless cloud.

The Zerg focused on the massive flock, sections of the cloud disappeared as the Zerg concentrated their attacks on the Wyvern within. However, the Wyvern was protected by a living barrier of Grimm, no matter how many scourges explode against it, Gryphons would intercept and sacrifice themselves to set off the scourges. Mutalisks were attacking everything and anything, including ground targets. The Corrupters would be beset by a dozen Grimm.

The Wyvern let loose a ear-piercing cry.

"KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

*THOOOOOOOOOM!*

Suddenly from high above, a single tendril from the massive Leviathan, one of many, slammed into the back of the disproportionally smaller Wyvern. The massive tendril carried the screaming Wyvern smashing directly into the ground of Vale's center, shaking fracturing the very earth.

There was a moment of silence before the massive tendril slowly pulled itself out of the ground and back to the Leviathan above. Leaving a massive gaping hole at the Kingdom's center as it bellowed out thick black smoke.

With the Wyvern dead, the Grimm in the air were in disarray and were once more dying in droves.

Soon the skies of Vale belong to the Zerg.

Location: Beacon, Vault

Cinder was seething. The incinerated corpse of Ozpin laid before her; nothing was left to recognize the man by other than his iconic cane.

However, she got what she came for and has wasted enough time. The Zerg are here, she was still in danger. She needed to-

*BOOM!* "CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Cinder turned and saw a massive multi-mouth worm-like monstrosity burst from the Vault's concrete wall to her right.

It then opened it's gaping maw and a single figure leaped out and onto the ground between her and the elevator.

His glowing orange eyes stared emotionlessly into Cinder's own as he slowly made his way to her. She in turn readied her newly acquired powers, her amber eyes burning with the power of the maiden.

"Cinder Fall. Your time has come." Ceres said, his tone calm but was as sharp as a blade's edge.

Cinder smirked. "You are far too late! I already have the power of the maiden! Nothing you throw at me will make a difference." Cinder retorted as her right hand burst into flame.

Ceres stopped just a few meters away. "My forces are clearing out the Grimm as we speak. The White Fang are all dead. And the Atlesian weapons you commandeered are all destroyed." Ceres stated.

Cinder chuckled. "Those were merely distractions to deviate you all from my true goal. Now I have achieved it, there is nothing keeping me from killing you again!" Cinder fired a ball of fire at Ceres. One that Ceres reactively slashed away with his glowing wrist blade.

Suddenly the massive Worm convulsed and spewed out more massive figures from it's maw. These figures let loose a blood curling roar before burrowing into the ground.

Cinder's eye's widened as she immediately flew back, just as the ground where she once stood exploded as four Massive Serpents with serrated claws and red markings came burst forth.

Each then fired a stream of deadly projectiles at Cinder, which she raised a single hand and incinerated them all.

Ceres the stood in between the large serpents, his glowing eyes never leaving Cinder's own. "You will not leave Vale alive Cinder Fall. You have sought my death." Ceres then extended his other blade as it glowed with power. "Now I seek yours."

Ceres charged forward, his beasts following closely behind.

Cinder flew into the air a tornado of pure fire swirled all around her.

Then she charged forward to face Ceres head-on.

AN:

And that's a wrap. As many of you may have guessed this omake takes place after the last tournament when Penny was ripped apart. The idea here was an assassination attempt on Ceres nearly succeeded but failed. The specifics of said assassinations were still on the drawing board. So don't ask.

Tell me what you think about this. If you have any comments, questions, and suggestions, leave them in the comment box below.

Thank you and stay tuned for the next chapter.