The Martian Rose

Arrival

The space above Remnant cracked before breaking open, pained howls flowed through the rips in reality as the Martian Fleet exited the warp in surprising unity. As the fleet left the warp, the holes in reality collapsed in on themselves and the crews came face to face with a planet eerily similar to ancient Terra. But the similarities were few and far between. The continents were different in their entirety, the moon was shattered, the continents were a mixture of sand, pure darkness, winter snow and verdant trees.

Memories had came crashing back for Ruby, her dad, Yang, her sister. Uncle Qrow and his breath constantly reeking of booze, but she quickly forced the recollection to stop and began reestablishing  a semblance of order and control on the bridge of The Omnisiah's Word as the state of Remnants moon had caused many of the crew to begin ranting and raving in blessed binaric canticles. "This is not possible!" One of the junior priests yelled out in alarm through his still organic voice before continuing. "With the moon shattered, the landmasses should have been flooded!"

Many tech-priests canted their agreement until a loud and metallic CLANG! echoed across the bridge and all eyes, metallic and organic alike turned towards their leader, and the source of the sound, Ruby Rose had slammed the base of her Omnisian Axe into the ground. "Enough!" She screeched out in binary before switching to gothic, she wanted everyone to hear and understand this. "We are all servants of the blessed Omnisiah, not a room of young children! The moon shall become a fall-back position and shipyard. Whilst this task is being fulfilled, we shall land and begin construction of the primary forge-temple."

Her voice had been clear and broadcasted across the entire fleet. And with the mechanical precision that the Mechanicum was known for, the fleet slowly began dividing, with a small fleet of tugboats, bulk-freighters and transport craft filled to bursting with tech-priests and their servitor servants, specially equipped for construction in the void. As Ruby watched the small fleet slowly break away from her armada, she could feel a small smile begin to form on her face, just behind the metal plate containing a small built-in vox unit that both relayed her orders and allowed her to speak in the blessed language of the machine. "Ignite the hololith."

"Compliance." A bridge servitor, permanently fused with its console drones lifelessly as green orb crackled into existence in the centre of the bridge, and Ruby began studying the holographic map of her home world before she looked towards the dragon-shaped continent. Perfect. "Set course for the dragon continent with the skitarii on the ground first. After we've secured a foothold, I want construction transports descending to begin construction of the temple primus. And prepare my Valkyrie and personal guard, I'm descending to the planet with the first wave." Ruby spoke calmly as she checked her Galvanic pistol and Omnisian axe.

Her personal guard consisted of a single squad of twelve Skitarii Vanguard armed with a Plasma Caliver, their Radium Carbines, a Transuranic Arquebus, an Arc rifle, and their leaders arc pistol and power maul. All twelve of them were veterans and survivors of their old units. Ruby had seen their records and taken them into her personal guard. This had caused some laughter initially from the older priests, who believed that a mere twelve man strong squad was a poor excuse for a priests guard. But she had rebuked them by stating, "I do not care if they are twelve Vanguard, or two combat servitors, my guard are my guard. And I trust them."

During her march towards the landing bay containing her personal Valkyrie gunship, another source of mockery from her peers, she had found her squad standing at attention next to the rear ramp. "Alpha." Ruby stated as she walked past the squad's leader, who in turn responded with making the cog-wheel insignia of the cult and blurting out in binaric "fabricator general," as started walking alongside her until they were met with an unexpected guest. The Skitarii Marshall, Gamma Beta was standing at-ease, but immediately snapped to attention and made the cog-symbol of the Mechanicum.

"Marshall, this is a unexpected surprise." Ruby said with little emotion in her voice as she returned the symbol of the Mechanicum. "I had anticipated that you would be joining the first landing parties with only a five point zero one percent chance of being incorrect. Therefore, I decided to wait patiently by your personal transport in anticipation of your arrival." Gamma Beta responded with the usual mechanical drone that one expects from his station. With only a mere nod, Ruby accepted his explanation and logic and boarded her Valkyrie gunship, with Gamma Beta and her personal guard following close behind her.

With a ear-piercing whine, the engines roared into life and the craft gently lifted off the deck-plating before slowly moving through the Atmospheric containment system and began its dive to the designated landing zone on the planet below, a small trickle of transports quickly turning into a continuous stream of red as they entered atmosphere, creating the image of a meteor shower to the people below who witnessed the descent.

*Meanwhile, in a Atleasian observatory*

General James Ironwood of the Atleasian armed forces had been visiting the observatory on a routine inspection when the U.F.O.'s had arrived in orbit of Remnants moon. He then watched in growing alarm as the fleet divided into two groups, one staying in orbit of the moon and dropping troops, at least. That is what he assumed they were dropping, and the second group entering high orbit of Remnant and dropping transports. "Track those ships!" He quickly bellowed in obvious concern and fear. "Sir!" One of the young technicians yelled back, "they seem to be making for the Dragon continent!" Ironwood could only watch in abject fear and despair as the ships burned down through the atmosphere like a single arrow engulfed in flames. He needed to speak with Ozpin about this.

A.N. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to voice your thoughts about the chapter and I'll see you all next time!