The Versal Conqueror: From The Remnant (Discontinued)

Chapter 5: Something Something... Nuclear Winter

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Third Person P.O.V

The piercing howl of the cold air resonated throughout the freezing plains as snow fell without end, painting the ground and its surroundings a depressing grey, as was the usual atlasian scenery. The unrelenting snow, plain has it may be, was by no means silent. Many kinds of varied and deadly Grimm roamed the land endlessly stalking and hunting down life, life which stubbornly decided to remain under the unforgiving conditions, from capable nomads, wandering merchants, and our focus for this chapter, slavers.

Slaver camps in the 'wilderness' of Solitas could be found occasionally under the silent agreement of the military. Some might wonder how the "most successful Kingdom" could have these kinds of things while maintaining their reputation, and the reason for that was actually rather simple. It wasn't that the atlasian military couldn't deal with the slavers and raiders and bandits lining the outside of their cities, it was simply that as long as they kept their activities relatively low level, it was more beneficial for the government to not pursue them and instead concentrate their strength within their borders, thus augmenting their security.

The majority of said outlaws knew this as well and thus decided to remain their activities within what the atlasian government would tolerate. Those few that didn't would quickly be made examples by the military, dissuading criminals outside their walls from acting up even further. In fact, some of the more prominent outlaw groups could even obtain connections to oficial companies and organizations 'under the table', in order to obtain aid and resources in return for... lets just say 'less than reputable' services. Such as slavery.

While the act of slavery was officially outlawed by the laws of the Kingdom of Atlas, the discrimination against the Faunus kind, the primary target for slave labor, made the enforcing of these laws negligent at best and outright non-existent on average. Faunus had a naturally stronger physical body when in comparison to humans, making them prime targets for slave labor has they could perform the same amount of labor as their robotic counterparts with only half the cost.

It didn't help the fact that the majority of the atlasian upper class treated the peril of the Faunus with complete apathy most of the time, with some offenders like the Schnee Dust Company actively funding and supporting the slave industry in order to save money on workers they can use in their mines. After all, Faunus slaves don't need to be payed a salary, can work outrageous hours under unsafe environments, and if they die there is no one that they need to pay compensation to. As such, unofficially funded slaver camps where not something rare, and in one of said slaver camps, a figure was currently trudging through the snow.

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Rocker's P.O.V

Rocker: "It's o-okay Rocker... you a-already got rid of those b-b-bastards... you'll... you'll make it"

I tried consoling myself as I trudged through the unrelenting snow, my frame shivering uncontrollably all the while. Even without the unwilling stuttering brought about by the frigid temperatures, the uncertainty of my words alone already made my reassurance unbelievable, even to myself.

I was going to die today.

I was just an unfortunate Faunus living on the streets of Carnegie, a town close to the northeast of Solitas around Metropolis and Sentinel. Living as what amounted to street rats I had never gotten a proper education, but even so, as the "most successful Kingdom" ("My ass...") in the world, the information one could get from just eavesdropping was impressive, so I knew things like basic geography and such. One of the factors that allowed me to struggle through my life, until now.