Standard Disclaimer: All rights belong to those whose rights they belong to, primarily Rooster Teeth for RWBY and CGL / Harebrained Schemes for all things Battletech, though quite namely not me. Don't own a thing.

Year: 3020
Planet: Remnant
Federated Suns

Signal Academy

"By the beginning of the twenty-second century the Western Alliance had grown to become the Terran Alliance, and despite discontent from some of its poorer constituents pursued an agenda of rapid technological development. Faster-than-light travel, the theories of which were first postulated by Thomas Kearny and Takayoshi Fuchida in the early 21st century, were realized on September 3, 2107, with the successful voyage of the first FTL spacecraft, the TAS Pathfinder, which made a 12-light year jump to the Tau Ceti star system."

Ruby Rose sighed, flipping through the screens on her outdated school tablet. I know all of this, she grumped silently. Where's the new stuff for the test?

The fourteen-year-old girl brushed her bangs aside, brown locks of hair dyed red at the tips much in the style of her mother. She let out another sigh as she realized it'd been six months now since she'd seen either of her parents, both gone on long deployments with the Davion military. Her stepmom, Raven, and her Uncle Qrow were off-planet as well, though the former actually did work for the Capellan Confederation and the latter, well… kinda worked for whoever was paying well.

Her perusal stopped at a date further along in the history timeline.

"Political corruption and instability, as well as the economic strain of supporting its colonies, eroded support for the Terran Alliance, and in 2314 it descended into civil war. The Alliance Global Militia under the direction of Navy Admiral James McKenna imposed an end to the conflict in 2315, dissolved the Parliament, and established in its place the Terran Hegemony, with McKenna elected as its first Director-General the following year. During McKenna's 23-year tenure, the Hegemony sought to reassert its authority over the outer colonies. Though achieving some early successes, the effort was ultimately a failure and galvanized resistance to the Hegemony. McKenna's successor, cousin Michael Cameron, concentrated on establishing more peaceful international relations."

The brunette girl nodded thoughtfully. Right, and from there formed the Great Houses, and then the Star League in… what was it…?

"Problems, Miss Rose?"

She let out a small squeak of noise at the comment coming from just over her shoulder. "O-oh, no ma'am, Miss Peach, I mean…" She glanced back at the passage she was reading. "Um… Did we get up to the formation of the Star League yet?"

"We did indeed, Miss Rose," the teacher commented wryly, strolling back towards the head of the classroom. "I know you've been out sick for a couple days, but even so, we'd covered well through the events of 2571."

Right, 2571, that's when the Star League formed… Oh, shoot! She frowned to herself, ignoring the snickers from her classmates. I missed the section about the introduction of Battlemechs!

She flipped forward, skimming over the excessive use of military powers on worlds such as the Capellan planet Tintavel in 2412 and the near-annihilation of the populace there. The subsequent Ares Convention and its adoption by all major nations got her closer to her goal.

"The conventions imposed strict prohibitions on how and where war could be waged and what constituted legitimate targets, discouraged orbital bombardment, and also outlawed the use of most nuclear and biological weapons. However, though intended to limit civilian casualties and prevent atrocities like those on Tintavel, the conventions also inadvertently institutionalized war as a means of settling disputes and ushered in an era of near-constant warfare."

Her actions slowed as she narrowed in on her goal, silver eyes lighting up with glee as she found what she was looking for.

"Emerging from the new military restrictions set by the Ares Conventions, large robotic war machines known as Battlemechs were developed by the Terran Hegemony in 2439 and first used in combat against the Draconis Combine in 2443. Both powerful and intimidating, Battlemechs drew attention away from space combat and onto the ground, and remained the most high-profile military units throughout all subsequent history of warfare. The design secrets of the Battlemech were stolen during a raid by Lyran Commonwealth commandos on a Terran 'Mech factory and subsequently spread by trade and conquest to all the other Great Houses."

Ruby blinked her eyes. That's it? Granted, she'd made a hobby about learning all she could about the humanoid-shaped armored combat vehicles, typically standing eight to fourteen meters tall and weighing anywhere from twenty to one hundred tons. They were the prevalent military force on any battlefield today… and her entire family was made up of Mechwarriors.

One day, she would follow in her parent's footsteps, just as her big sister Yang was training to do.

Oh, well, she shrugged unconcernedly. Suppose I should catch up on the rest so I can move on to that Chemistry homework… Her eyes darted back and forth as the scrolling continued. She paused as she came to a crucial turning point in the history of humanity among the stars.

"In the mid 28th century the current First Lord of the Star League died suddenly and tragically in an accident. Richard Cameron, then still a boy and unready to rule, was thrust onto the throne. Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky was appointed as regent of the Star League. The Star League Council, composed of the five Great House Lords, saw themselves as the true rulers of the Star League. Upon reaching maturity, the son of the deceased First Lord sent out edicts limiting the house armies, while also placing higher taxes on the Periphery states. This started the Border War, occupying much of the League forces with quelling civil unrest. Taking advantage of this unrest, Stefan Amaris (the leader of the Rim Worlds Republic) first became a personal friend of the First Lord, then killed all of the Cameron family - even the First Lord himself - and claimed the title. This was truly the beginning of the end for the Star League. The Amaris Coup touched off thirteen years of fighting as the Star League Defense Force fought its way from the Periphery to Terra. General Alexander Kerensky's effort to remove the usurper claimed nearly three-quarters of the SLDF. Still suffering from recent battles and unable to hold back the Houses and the coming darkness, Kerensky began an exile of all willing troops to leave known space, thus leaving the way open for the Succession Wars."

Ruby leaned back from her desk, her gaze drifting up to rest on the wall-mounted large square map that depicted the nations of the Inner Sphere, arrayed like spokes on a wheel around the central point of Terra. Five uneven wedges were highlighted in different colors.

The Free Worlds League, ruled by House Marik.

The Federated Suns, ruled by House Davion.

The Draconis Combine, ruled by House Kurita.

The Lyran Commonwealth, ruled by House Steiner.

The Capellan Confederation, ruled by House Liao.

There had been three Succession Wars now, interstellar conflicts involving hundreds to thousands of Battlemechs at a time, creating a swath of destruction that, even with the tenants of the Ares Convention, threatened to destroy much of the technology gained during the past few centuries. Some knowledge was already rated LosTech, such as the ability to create more Jumpships to travel between stars, as well as quite a bit of Battlemech and medical technology that was unable to be replicated.

Since the current Third war started winding down, though, there had been mostly smaller border conflicts, at least in this region. Her own planet, Remnant, had once belonged to Liao but had changed hands to Davion as it bordered the two nations. They had been a Federated Suns planet for her entire lifetime now, and everyone agreed that life was better under Davion rule.

At least they left them alone for the most part.

Ruby drummed her fingers lightly on the desktop as her attention once again was drawn to her tablet. The large-scale battles of the first two wars, and the early years of the third, were a thing of the past with the armies of the Great Houses so depleted. Planetary invasions still happened, but on a company or battalion scale, rather than with regiments. Still, never-ending war was just a fact of life for everyone, the current conflict having lasted about a hundred and fifty years now.

Before she could continue, the building shook slightly with the windows giving a harsh rattle. Everyone's eyes shot over to peer outside, though nothing could be seen.

"Wait, what are those?" a boy sitting next to a window questioned, pointing up at the sky.

By that point, everyone was out of their seats and rushing first to the window, and then out the door to join the rest of Signal Academy's population to gaze, open-mouthed, upwards.

Numerous trails arced across the dark sky, leading with a burning ball of flame.

Ruby looked around wildly, finally finding the blonde mane of her older sister. She hurried over to pull at Yang's arm. "What's going on?" she asked worriedly.

The sixteen-year-old, currently enrolled in the Mechwarrior training program, glanced aside grimly before her lilac eyes went back to staring across the town rather than the sky. "Ain't it obvious, Rubbles? We're being invaded. The Capellan Confederation finally got to our doorstep."

"Oh," she breathed in reply, directing her gaze toward where Yang was looking. Off in the distance, several Battlemechs were striding towards where the nearest dropships were making their landings after their fiery breakthrough of the atmosphere. "Um… are we gonna fight back?"

"With what?" Yang barked out a bitter laugh. "Davion doesn't allow us a militia, and their regulars are off defendin' some other world. We gots nothing to fight back with but unarmed training 'Mechs."

"But… then…"

Yang nodded towards the backs of the 'Mechs. "School professors. Old warriors goin' off to die." The blonde sighed, running a hand through her long tresses. "Well, I s'pose instead of piloting 'Mechs for Davion, we'll get to pilot for Liao."

"Yeah… I suppose…" She frowned at the thought. "What about mom and dad? They're with Davion still…"

"Yeah, they are…" Yang grinned, her earlier dismal mood vanished as if it'd never been there. "Don't you worry none, sis, I'm not goin' anywhere until you can get yourself in Mechwarrior school too, and old enough to take care of yourself. Alright?"

"Alright, Yang," the brunette replied, accepting the side-arm hug and wrapping her own arm around her older sibling.

Still, she couldn't help but worry.

Everything's gonna change, now…

Year: 3025
Planet: Teng
Capellan Confederation

Five Years Later

Ruby leaned forward in her seat with an eager grin on her face. Underneath her, the 20-ton Locust responded to her actions, leaning forward as well as it accelerated to its considerable top speed.

Her Battlemech, though one of the lightest, was easily the fastest 'Mech in existence to the best of her knowledge. The trade-off for this speed was, of course, very little armor and minimal weaponry. Still, her medium-strength laser and paired antipersonnel machine guns were comparable to other light 'Mechs of the same weight class, such as the Stinger or Wasp. The biggest difference being the lack of jump jets, harnessing the power of a 'Mech's fusion engine to superheat air or another suitable fluid to briefly overcome gravity and rocket short distances over the battlefield. It made the other Battlemechs maneuverable, to be sure.

But she'd take flat-out speed any day.

Her bird-like 'Mech kicked up dust behind as she raced across the dry gully to reach her assigned area to scout. Locusts were one of the few 'Mechs not to keep a humanoid appearance, lacking any arms save for stubby little wings on either side which housed the machine gun arrays. Its legs were spindly and canted backward like a bird, giving it an odd gait that many Mechwarriors disliked.

They just don't know how to appreciate my baby, she giggled to herself. She'd named the Locust Crescent Rose in the tradition that most Mechwarriors followed, though she wasn't permitted by regulation within the Liao Regulars to stencil the name on the outside. Instead, her Battlemech was adorned with a flat, dismal-looking green that reminded her of swamp water from back home.

Her comm unit crackled to life suddenly. "Ruby, you out there?"

The brunette's grin widened at the sound of her best friend within her company, a fellow Remnanter conscript that she spent a lot of time with over the past year. Within the confines of her neurohelmet, a special device that translated her movements and sense of balance to the Battlemech's computer, she flexed her jaw to open the channel. "'Course I am, Sun, just out for a stroll."

"Uh-huh, a stroll at a hundred and thirty klicks per hour, right?"

"Well, sure, my baby needed to stretch her legs," she giggled in return.

Sun's answering laughter barely carried over the static. The ridges around this area of Teng played havoc with communications due to the oddly metallic content of the soil here. "Yeah, well, I'll take slow and steady with more than paper for armor and bigger than a peashooter for a gun."

"And I can still run circles around your tin can," she snorted. Sun's fifty-ton Centurion, a common enough medium-class 'Mech in the Capellan Confederation, certainly had respectable armor, not to mention a heavy autocannon, a rack of long-range missiles, and a pair of lasers equivalent to her own single one. Still, he could barely outpace much heavier 'Mechs, his top speed less than half of hers.

"Speed-freak."

"Slow-poke."

"Yeah, yeah… Look, we're moving out now, got a report of another lance in sector thirty-two we're gonna go bash on."

"Thirty-two?" She glanced at the display on her HUD. "Oh, that's right next to mine. Lemme know if you need help. I can be there, y'know, in a flash."

"I'm sure you can," Sun chuckled. "Well, one way or another, you coming by for a movie tonight?"

"You know it, I'd never turn down a terrible action flick with overcooked popcorn at the House of Wukong."

Sun barked out a hearty laugh. "Roger that, Red. Watch yourself out there."

"Pfft, like I got anything to worry about," the brunette snorted. "They'd have to catch me, first. You watch your own ass, Wukong."

"'Later."

With that, the connection was cut and Ruby could return her full attention to her surroundings. Granted, nothing had changed really, and her Garrett sensor system would have alerted her to anything unusual, but she liked to stay alert, all the same.

Speaking of which…

She flexed her jaw twice, opening the comm channel to her lance. "This is Rose, I have a possible reading close by here in sector thirty."

"A possible reading?" the query came back. "Go make sure, we're approaching your position."

"Roger that." Her lance leader, Warrant Officer Briggs, was a decent enough leader, if uninspired. He wasn't quite sure what to make of Ruby, she believed, but pretty much just let her run around as she liked. Which, honestly, suited her just fine.

She leaned into a turn, scaling the sides of the ridge to poke her head over towards where the reading seemed to come from.

And came face-to-face with an enemy Battlemech.

"Yikes!" she yelped, quickly backpedaling and avoiding the reflexive barrage of missile fire that soared over her head.

She turned and raced off in an oblique direction, looping back around to come up on the flank of her opponent. Right, so he's a Commando, five tons heavier but a lot slower… still, all those missiles will chew me to shreds if he gets me sensor-locked. She gulped involuntarily at the thought of a full spread of ten short-ranged missiles, twice as heavy and twice as powerful as their longer-ranged counterparts, smashing into her baby. Not gonna happen, his armor is not much better than mine, I just gotta surprise him.

Sure enough, as she crested the ridge, her opponent was badly out of position, working on scaling the reverse side of the protrusion near where she'd been. She was facing his side, and he was hardly expecting her to pop up again so soon and so far away.

Fortunately, the other Battlemech that she'd missed was just as surprised, even though he was directly in front of her.

"Well, son of a shitbiscuit," she grunted, lurching to the side and spinning around. The second light 'Mech, at thirty-five tons, was a Jenner. It was another bird-like design but carried a respectable rack of four short-range missiles and another four medium lasers. The SRMs were mounted just below the protruding cockpit while the lasers were housed in the stubby arms.

As she danced around the Jenner, throwing that pilot into even more of a disarray, she began to pepper the side and rear of the Commando with accurate and deadly laser fire. After three hits, the left rear armor was penetrated, setting off an internal explosion of ammunition.

"Ha, gotcha," she crowed, noting the top of the 'Mech popping off as the Mechwarrior ejected from his crippled vehicle. The explosions soon consumed the entire Battlemech, its left arm flying off to the side.

Her other opponent was starting to react, twisting about to track the elusive lighter 'Mech. But Ruby wasn't about to allow them a clear shot. She quickly reversed direction, bumping into the Jenner and sending it stumbling off-balance before sending a laser blast into its side. The pilot was fairly quick to counter, though, and turned again, shooting off a salvo of SRMs that Ruby was just barely able to skip out of the way of.

'Mechs with canted legs like the Locust and Jenner suffered from a certain vulnerability, one Ruby was always careful to protect herself from with her innate agility. She was not above exploiting said vulnerability when it came to those she faced on the battlefield, though.

With a quick series of sidesteps, the brunette Mechwarrior closed in on the Jenner, lifting a foot up before smashing it down on the other 'Mech's ankle. The mechanism was crushed, severely limiting its ability to keep up with the more maneuverable Locust.

It didn't take much longer for her to strip away the rear armor of the heavier 'Mech and permanently disable it. Both torsos were demolished, severing the arms as well, before she was able to finish what she started on the one leg with several accurate laser shots.

The top hatch of the Jenner popped open and her opponent emerged, looking haggard and shaken. She turned her 'Mech around and raced back down into the gully towards where her lance should have been approaching.

Some Mechwarriors were of the opinion that the only good enemy was a dead one. She'd never ascribed to that policy, caring little for killing. If her opponent ejected or otherwise escaped, she'd be more than happy to let them go.

Ruby drove a Battlemech to fight other 'Mechs, not already-defeated pilots.

"Rose here, encountered a pair of enemy 'Mechs, took care of them. Briggs, you run into anyone yet?"

Only static answered her hail.

She frowned as her Locust accelerated. "Briggs, you copy?"

After a handful of kilometers, she could see the rising tendrils of smoke ahead.

"Aw, dammitall," she groaned.

Sure enough, around the next bend, the brunette came across the scattered remains of her lance. The pair of Wasps were nothing but scrap metal, though the Warrant Officer's 45-ton Phoenix Hawk looked like it had been giving as good as it got. At least, until what appeared to be an autocannon hit to the head, decapitating the 'Mech.

Ruby let out a huff of air, resolving not to mourn her comrades until she was out of trouble herself. Three flexes of her jaw opened a new channel to headquarters. "Control, this is Mechwarrior Rose, Third Lance, Charlie Company, Second Battalion. Do you copy?"

Again, a static hiss was her only answer.

"Shit… fucking shit on a bun…" Her eyes tracked the area around the carnage, noting the tracks of numerous 'Mechs, easily a pair of lances. Of the enemy, there were a few severed arms littered about as well as the burnt-out husk of a 35-ton Firestarter, a deadly 'Mech that could quickly build an opponent's heat to critical levels, but otherwise, the enemy seemed to have made it past their line operational and still a danger.

"This is a lot more of the enemy than there's supposed to be here," she muttered, turning to face the direction of the base she was housed at. She paused, however, as a cold, sinking feeling began to claw at her gut. "Sun…" she breathed anxiously.

Spinning back towards where she'd come from, she took off at her top speed once more. After a few flicks of switches on her console, she flexed her jaw to open her personal channel again.

"Wukong, you copy?" she asked urgently.

The brunette woman was really, really starting to get tired of only hearing static on her comm.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit… c'mon you big monkey answer me! Wukong, do you copy?" She grit her teeth as she took a turn in the gulley at a rather inadvisable speed, though she managed to retain her 'Mech's footing. "Sun! Sun, you asshole, answer me! Sun!"

Once she was out of the gulley her HUD informed her she was now crossing over into sector thirty-two. As her eyes scanned the horizon, her heart sank into her boots.

More pyres of smoke lay just ahead.

"No… no no no…"

Her Battlemech skidded to a halt just outside a scene much like the last. There were more metallic carcasses lying about, some recognizable, many not. Her silver eyes darted around, scanning for metal in the same shade of puke-green as her 'Mech until they rested on a recognizable pair of Battlemech legs standing upright.

Nothing else was left of Sun's Centurion, just the two legs, sticking up like a pair of graveyard monuments.

She wasn't sure how long she remained there, motionless, before her comm finally crackled to life.

"All Liao units, fall back. All positions untenable, we are evacuating the planet. Make your way to the closest dropship as indicated on your tactical map. Liao units, report in with your status."

Ruby sniffled and rubbed at her tear-filled eyes beneath the neurohelmet visor before opening a channel in reply. "This…" She cleared her throat. "This is Mechwarrior Rose, Third Lance, Charlie Company, Second Battalion. Rest of lance is gone. I'm… heading for the dropship at sector twenty-eight."

"Roger that, Mechwarrior Rose. You'd better hurry if you want to make your ride off of this planet."

"Affirmative."

She closed the channel and raced forward, dust churning up beneath Crescent Rose as she raced towards her destination.

Oh, I'll make it, alright… With time to spare. Just get me the hell off of this forsaken rock.

Unabated tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

A/N: Ohhh my goodness, this has been a very long while coming. Like, in planning for almost two years now. I've wanted to write something with RWBY in Battlemechs for the longest time. Surprisingly, it's not a common crossover. I mean, 4 'Mechs to a lance, 4 hunters in a team… Perfect fit, right?

I've played the Battletech tabletop game since it's inception by FAFSA, as well as Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries by Mektek (gods, that was a fun game). And then Harebrained Schemes put out Battletech this past April. I finally picked it up… and I'm hooked. I can so easily fit the girls of RWBY into this, and it's made my desire to write this story even greater.

So, what's in store for you dear readers? Well, I have a full synopsis and outline done out to 50 chapters, so we'll at least get that much. After that depends some on the reception and where I want to take it from there. I'm going to try and keep to a weekly posting as I have a bit of a buffer already built up. Hopefully, I can stick to it.

Currently, we have a kickass story image courtesy of my ever-fabulous Beta, SilvanaCrowe, as well as some more images to be revealed at a later date. We also have the talents of KellyConnely along as another Beta for this endeavor.

Will we see some more glorious 'Mech-on-'Mech battle action? Oh, hell yes. Will we see character development? That's the plan. Will we see romance? I mean, come on, it's me, ships will abound. Including some new ones I haven't seen before. Even some actual hetero pairings (gasp!). Not even gonna try to list them all here, take a peek at the tags over on AO3 if you're curious. Hang on tight to your neurohelmets, folks, it's gonna be one helluva ride.

I'm going to try and give a lot of background for novices to the Battletech universe and fans alike. (Credit for the history lessons in the first half of this chapter go to the Battletech wiki on sarna dot net.) Just so you know, this is going to be set just on the cusp of the Fourth Succession War (which began in 3028). So no Clans, sorry. Um, what else… Oh, here's a rule of thumb that might be helpful for the newbies. There are four Battlemechs in a lance, three lances to a company, three companies to a battalion, and three battalions to a regiment.

Last thing (because holy shitbiscuits this author's note is long) - there are entirely too many characters in this story to be assigning them callsigns, nobody will remember them. 'Mechs will be named, and that's it, sorry.

For longtime readers, I haven't given up on Blood of the Rose any, I've just hit a little bit of a block in motivation. I'm hoping that this will get me moving once more, I'd really like to return to writing that story again as well… Whelp, till next time!

Stay shiny!