Fanfic / Dust and Echoes

Cover by Alex-kellar

From trestwho, the same writer of his other popular RWBY crossover fic Hunters of Justice, Dust and Echoes is a crossover fanfic between RWBY and Halo.

After achieving a pyrrhic victory against the Covenant, the UNSC after a random Slipspace jump, end up stumbling upon a planet filled with hostile shadowy monsters, mysterious crystals with elemental abilities, and more shockingly, what appear to be humans with superpowers, others having animal traits, and while having no connection to Earth or her Colonies. Meanwhile, Remnant ends up establishing contact with aliens who happen to be space-faring humans that have colonized hundreds of planets. In a galaxy filled with terrifying dangers, these two civilizations must unite to defend all they know from annihilation...

The story can be read on SpaceBattles, Fanfiction.net, and Archive of Our Own.

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Tropes contained in Dust and Echoes include the following:

Tropes A-J

• Action Prologue: The story kicks off in the middle of the Covenant attacking Remnant, before going back ten years in the past to explain the current alliance between Remnant and the UNSC and how we came to the events of the first chapter. (Though according to the author, this functions more as a pilot to show us the broad details of what would happen and smaller details will be changed.)
• Actor Allusion: Professor Ozpin is rather uncomfortable about sharing space with Dr. Halsey, because she sounds exactly like Salem; as petty as Ozpin admits it sounds. Yet this is a clever crack at the fourth wall given both these characters are voiced by Jen Taylor.
• Adaptational Badass: A downplayed and justified case; invoked Word of God has indicated that with the Genre Shift from a shounen-esque adventure series to an epic war story, the Atlesian Knights aren't as disposable in this world as they are in RWBY proper. In fact, Halsey believes the Atlesian Knights may be of some decent value in the future of the Covenant War.
• Adaptational Expansion: More Worldbuilding is given to Remnant here, such as the existence of a Apocalypse Cult worshipping Salem called the "Cult of the Ash Bride." Later on there is also more exploration of how the UNSC colonies function and how civilian populaces recieve more often than not, propaganda reports that exaggerate victories. But as much as this displeases Robyn this is seen by the UNSC as a necessary evil to keep humanity’s morale up against the Covenant’s genocidal war and the unfortunate fact that they are beginning to lose in said war.
• Afro Futurism: Played with. Peponi is a UNSC Inner Colony that is prominently West African in origin, and prominently features a humid and tropical environment that the colony is built around.
• All for Nothing: The Skirmish on Khembalung. The Huntsmen and UNSC went down to try and rescue any survivors. Unfortunately, while there were survivors, they were long dead as the Jackal pirates found them first and used their rescue message as bait for any UNSC that came.
  • This also applies to the Vyraj arc as a whole, which after several chapters of the Remnant delegation seeing, discussing, and fretting over the Insurrection and the UNSC's response to it drops them both off a bridge when the Covenant abruptly invade and glass the planet till nothing remains. Qrow realizes all too well that this trope applies to humanity's (and Faunus') squabbles as a whole when faced with annihilation by the Covenant and makes absolutely certain that Remnant needs to work with the UNSC in this war or else they will end up just like Vyraj.
  • On a more uplifting note, Blademaster Ir 'Haramai's efforts to protect Peponi's Cartographer and the memory block they downloaded its information onto, ends with both getting destroyed by the UNSC and the Huntsmen while Ir and his Zealots all end up dead... save for Rteda Vasovee, who got fed up with Ir's boneheaded and self righteous decisions and ended up the one to kill him.
• Angst? What Angst?: invoked Lampshaded; In Chapter 11, the Master Chief notes that intellectually speaking, he should despise Dr. Halsey and the UNSC for having made him and his fellow SPARTANs into Child Soldiers, but he can't bring himself to truly feel that way since he's fine with being used to help safeguard humanity's continued survival. Which while sounding noble, definitely feels more like something ONI shoved into their heads and became the norm.
  John-117's Narration: While John didn’t regret his life turning out the way it did, he recognized the inherent injustice inflicted upon him and his SPARTANs. Part of him supposed he should hate the UNSC and Doctor Halsey for what they did to them, but he didn’t. None of the SPARTAN-IIs did, for while they may have lost their chance at a normal life, becoming SPARTANs gave them purpose.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Creatures known as the Grimm are viewed as this by the UNSC. Admiral Cole is particularly disturbed that despite their (typically, at least) vaguely animalistic appearance, their Unstoppable Rage, rapid disintegration after death, and inky black skin adorned with bone-white "armor" all makes it very clear that they're sure as hell not actual animals.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Dust reappears from RWBY here. Interestingly, it's implied to have some sort of connection to the Forerunners, with the Prophets and Arbiter both referring to them as "Elemental Crystals" in a way that implies that they were already known of by the Covenant prior to Remnant's discovery by the UNSC. With Aura and Semblence likely to have a similar connection as well, if one follows this logic the Covenant introduces.
• Ascended Extra: Ethan Graves, a character from Halo: Fireteam Raven, becomes the one who bridges the gap needed for communication between the Everest and Remnant after being rescued by Qrow and Atlesian soldiers.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Haki Felt, a murderous and insane agent of Salem, used to be a promising student from Haven Academy who unfortunately suffered from worsening schizophrenia (due to life-long exposure to Lightning Dust damaging her nervous system as she grew up in extreme poverty and frequently used it believing it kept her skills sharp) which eventually made her lose control of herself, and tragically killed her team when they tried to help her. She suffered a further breakdown during her second fight against Blue Team when it became obvious that she was losing, resulting in her death. Ozpin also theorizes that her Semblance, which allows her to rewind time in her local area by several seconds, might be indicative that she did something she wants to undo, but subconsciously knows she can't (most likely, the murder of her team).
• Ancestral Weapon: Jaune Arc's weapon, as in canon, is Crocea Mors; a sword and shield that has been passed down his family line for generations. Abby Redwall's weapon, Mossflower, is similar, only it is a massive claymore she has to hold with two hands.
• Badass Normal: UNSC Marines, when compared to Remnant's fighters and the SPARTANs. They don't have any Aura or natural or esoteric augmentations to speak of like Remnant’s natives have, but make up for it in sheer tenacity, clever tactics and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, earning the respect of everyone present.
  • A particular notice goes to the ODSTs, whose modus operandi is dropping in behind enemy lines from orbit.
• Big Bad: Both the Covenant and its threat against Remnant in the future, and later Salem when she somehow joins them.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Just when an Elite is about to kill Ruby during the prologue after getting the jump on her, Sergeant Johnson shows up and blows the Elite away with a shotgun firing modified Dust rounds.
  • The UNSC quickly earns the respect and love of Remnant when most of the initial ground teams sent to investigate the planet upon arriving in the Oum System go out of their way to rescue multiple small towns from vicious Grimm attacks that occurred at the time.
• Break the Scientist: On both sides of the barrier.
  • Catherine Halsey is extremely annoyed to learn about Semblances as they can get quite esoteric, at one point growling that one shouldn't be able to selectively alter the laws of physics "by thinking about it real hard." And is extremely determined to decipher Aura and Semblances to prove that there IS a scientific basis around these concepts.
  • Drs. Polendina and Watts in turn are both flabbergasted by slipspace and its eleven dimensions, with Watts (being the Know-Nothing Know-It-All Jerkass he is) trying to snidely imply that the UNSC might even be fundamentally wrong in their approach to Faster-Than-Light Travel. And it’s likely Watts, just like Halsey, will be eager to prove the UNSC is wrong in their method of Faster-Than-Light Travel.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • When Robyn and her team snuck onto the UNSC Midsummer Night to join the joint UNSC-Remnant mission to verify the Covenant's existence, the Ace-Ops aren't happy and protest their inclusion. Both sides, however, make very valid points:
    • Clover states that what she did was unauthorized, and that Ironwood chose the Ace-Ops to represent Atlas and, by extension, Mantle because he trusts them compared to Robyn Hill's team. He also declares that Ironwood's intention was far from excluding Mantle from the proceedings.
    • Robyn admits that she understands Ironwood's intentions, but the message of excluding Mantle was received all the same. That by choosing the Ace-Ops, none of whom are from Mantle, Ironwood subtly sends the message that he does not trust Mantle to even come alongside the Atlas’s Ace Ops even. She then states that none of the Ace-Ops have been to Mantle often, and that her team would be better suited to represent Mantle which has always left behind compared to Atlas. As Robyn and the Happy Huntresses are well-known and trusted in Mantle, them spreading the message about the Covenant would be much better received. Finally, May's Semblance of invisibility and Fiona's Semblance of storing items, including Dust, in a pocket dimension could prove to be very useful if needed.
  • The decision to have the Faunus aboard the UNSC Midsummer Night disguise themselves by covering their Faunus traits, nearly causing an altercation on the bridge. On the one hand, the White Fang's delegates are correct in asserting that doing so is tantamount to the same oppressive and discriminatory policies that the Faunus had been dealing with for thousands of years. Policies that separated the Faunus from the majority human population, making it easier to exclude them, or worse. But, on the other hand, the UNSC is correct in wanting to keep Remnant's existence a secret for the time being, and unlike the colorful hairs and eyes that some of the human delegates have, their Faunus characteristics would be much harder to explain away due to those traits not existing in UEG space. They would stand out like a sore thumb, prompting people to ask questions and thus risk breaking the veil of secrecy surrounding Remnant. Ultimately, the UNSC acknowledges that the order was going to cause discomfort and is supposed to be temporary, while the Faunus go along with it but make it clear that they are not happy about it.
  • Adriaan gives the viewpoint of the Insurrectionists desire for change and reform and pushback against what they saw as Earth/Inner Colony mistreatment of the Outer Colonies, before the shift that lead the Insurrection into utter extremism. At the same time, calling out the remaining Insurrectionists as nothing more than violent and spiteful terrorists who rather burn the world down than work with the UNSC.
• Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the Peponi story arc, the UNSC manage to evacuate more than half of the population which would not be possible without the help of the Remnant delegation, although not without sustaining some casualties on their end (most notably Sepia Honeyceep & Thomas Cornell from Vale’s delegation team perishing). The Cartographer data is not only partially retrieved by the UNSC but the copied data is also prevented from falling into Covenant hands which saves dozens of human colonies, particularly Remnant, from being discovered by the Covenant. Going by the prologue, this only buys Remnant some — admittedly valuable — time to prepare, not to mention the people back at Remnant waiting to be told of the horrible truth regarding the genocidal Covenant.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • How Halsey describes the majority of UNSC small arms. Their mainline round, the 7.62 NATO, may be 600 years old and primitive, but it is cheap, effective, and easy to transport to all of their colonies. In fact, they are so effective that the only advantage most Remnant rounds have is being Dust propelled, and UNSC rounds modified to use Dust later on are actually more effective than the Remnant ones.
  • This is also why the UNSC does not have robotic armies despite having the capability to construct and field them. As gene therapy technologies advanced to cure diseases and improve human physiology, they found it cheaper to simply train adaptable human soldiers rather than develop robots that would have to be deployed across all 800 of their colonies. That being said, the existence of the Atlesian Knights and Remnant’s incredibly advanced robotics technology in general has caused Halsey to begin reconsidering that decision for the future.
• Born Lucky:
  • Both Qrow and Clover, but on opposite ends. Qrow's Semblance constantly generates bad luck around him. While he can focus it, he can't exactly turn it off, which leads to minor inconveniences for him and those around him. Clover's Semblance, on the other hand, constantly creates good luck for him and needless to say provides invaluable boons when in the heat of battle or in a decisive moment.
  • During the Skirmish on Khembalung, both Semblances are used to great effect. Qrow uses it to cause a fuel rod gun to explode in the hands of its operator while Clover's Semblance allows a grenade to land right underneath an anti-air Shade then explode, causing the blamite housed in the turret to supercombine as well.
• Butt-Monkey: As always, the Grunts are on the receiving end of this in the case of Jamflip on Peponi, who is captured by Robyn and other Huntsmen.
• Call-Forward: Professor Ozpin peacefully eating some chocolate chip cookies with Ethan Graves in Atlas to help create a peaceful dialogue between the UNSC and Remnant was intentionally written as an allusion to Ozpin doing the same thing with Ruby Rose in the web series' pilot episode.
• Cassandra Truth: Two Jackals who witnessed Qrow's abilities firsthand fled after the death of their major in order to warn their fellow pirates. Unfortunately for them, the Jackal Fieldmaster doesn't believe their claims at all, and even thinks that they're on drugs.
• Commie Land: Subverted with Vyraj, an Inner Colony and predominantly Russisn and Slavic in its culture. Played straight with the Worker’s Liberation Party, a neo-communist Insurrectionist group still active and caused some damage the Remnantarians unfortunately witnessed before the Covenant came.
• Continuity Nod: Eridanus II, the home of both the Master Chief and Emile, is visited.
  • Eridanus II is also home to a massive glyph glassed into the planet, Faith. An reference to Halo: Evolutions.
  • The Razorback, a UNSC vehicle that serves as an armored troop transport, was first mentioned in the Halo universe back in I Love Bees makes an appearance at the end of the Vyraj Arc.
• Crazy-Prepared: In chapter, 28, Captain Price gives Clover an Octanitrocubane charge (Octa for short) that he borrowed from the Cartographer demolition crew if the latter is the last one standing and the Cartographer data block still needs to be destroyed. It gets used for a whole different reason in the next chapter to destroy the Covenant ship the "Valorous Penance" in a hit-and-run plan to throw the armed Octa in the ship from a hijacked phantom to blow the ship and data block to smithereens..
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Harriet accidentally subjects a captured Grunt to one when she breaks his methane tank in a brief struggle. The Grunt slowly chokes to death on oxygen, prolonged by the traces of breathable methane he has left.
• Culture Clash: There's understandably a lot of it going around between Remnant and the UNSC. Generally, the Kingdoms of Remnant are all shown to be visibly uncomfortable with the highly militarized and conformist UNSC (with the exception of Atlas, whose own militarized society leads to them quickly working fairly well with the "aliens"), who understandably butt heads with Remnant's incredibly individualistic and non-conformist cultures based around personal independence and artistic expression. As an example, Johnson is clearly unsettled when Qrow informs him that Huntsmen are ultimately mercenaries in all but name, and is shown to be still struggling to wrap his head around the concept when the Grimm attack Amity Colosseum.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • invoked The UNSC and mankind as a whole is still losing the war against the Covenant, with billions already dead and countless worlds glassed. Word of God has made it clear that even with Remnant assisting the UNSC, at its current rate this Hopeless War has only been slowed down to a decent degree, but not stalled completely. And quite frankly, will still need a miracle to somehow survive this genocidal war against their kind.
  • Blue Team's first battle against Haki Felt is this, forcing them to fall back and regroup. Luckily for them, they're able to learn from the encounter and turn the tables from being completely lopsided against them to being a roughly even fight, which they end up winning.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Ruby's fight with the Elite assassin in the prologue. The Elite ultimately wins and nearly guts her due to a combination of greater battle experience and more advanced equipment, but Ruby still gives as good as she gets and manages to last long enough that Sergeant Johnson is able to arrive and save her life.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Cole tells the leaders of Remnant that in the worst case scenario, if they refuse to formally ally with the UNSC, their Plan B is to simply hire the Huntsmen and Huntresses they need on an individual basis.
• Death World: Something the UNSC who landed on Remnant found out the hard way when the Creatures of Grimm attacked them. Every team that had been sent out to explore Remnant were forced to run back to their ships or, fight the hordes of hellbeast’s to survive, or in some unfortunate cases, ended up dead. Needless to say, Cole and Hannibel can easily tell this is why the natives of this planet evolved to be biologically stronger than Earth humans given the hellish conditions they live in.
  • As a result of this, when the First Contact Summit occurred the UNSC took no chances and brought nearly their entire force to bear, which came in handy when the Grimm attacked like the UNSC and some of the Remnant delegation feared.
  • Lampshaded also by Thel 'Vadamee (the Arbiter), who after hearing of the Grimm utterly savaging and brutally mauling the Covenant's forces on Remnant, grimly muses that their presence easily explains why the Huntsmen are all such dangerous and powerful Super Soldiers.
• Deadpan Snarker: Qrow on several occasions, as with canon. Dr. Halsey also gets her own snark on when trying to understand how Aura and Semblances work. There's also Fred-104 from Blue Team, who even after being stabbed in the kidney by Haki Felt, only says “Eh, I’ve had worse.”
• Deflector Shields: The Covenant make heavy use of energy shield technology, with Elites wearing full body protection and Jackals carrying a hand-held version. Crucially, this is a similar idea to Remnant humans' Aura, so they are on relatively even footing in that way. Though it is an iconic element in the games' arsenal, SPARTANs pointedly do not have these yet, as the UNSC has not finished reverse-engineering that technology. This leaves them at a disadvantage against Haki Felt, as they can't hurt her through her Aura and their physical armor can't stand up to her superhuman strength and firepower.
• Didn't Think This Through: When the UNSC gets prepared to leave with those who volunteered or were chosen to meet the Covenant, the Happy Huntresses from Mantle are found, wishing to join in order to represent Mantle. What results is Keyes nonlethally shooting May Marigold in the face, followed by them being surrounded by hundreds of guns from marines and the other assembled Huntsmen. Even when Keyes considers and accept her broader point about representing Mantle then allowed to join the mission, she and the Happy Huntresses are still placed under arrest with the Ace-Ops assigned to watch over them. Robyn even admits that she didn't think it through.
• Doing In the Wizard: invoked While it has yet to be outright stated in the story proper, Word of God has noted that Aura, Semblances, Dust, and the other more overtly supernatural aspects of RWBY will get logical explanations justifying their existence in the science fiction Space Opera of Halo. Easily the biggest hint given is that apparently the "first" apocalypse on Remnant caused by Salem's fall from grace happened around 100 millennia ago... which was around the same time as when the Halo Array was fired. Later on this is further shown when during the battle of Peponi, some of the Elites note how the Remnant hunters and Huntresses are using "elemental crystals" in their attack to claim the Cartographer. Meaning it is something they themselves had discovered and possibly utilized before the UNSC found Remnant.
• External Combustion: While visiting the UNSC colony Vyraj, an Insurrectionist car bomb goes off right next to the White Fang delegation who happened to be passing by. While they help the injured, more go off across the entire city.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The uncomfortable prejudice and open contempt for the Faunus on Remnant is unfortunately still alive and well. Most notably, Ghira Belladonna and Sienna Khan - the White Fang's representatives to the UNSC's First Contact meeting in Amity Colosseum - has them being met with more civility by the "aliens" than their fellow Remnantians, with the Mistralians even showing outrage over them having shown up in the first place.
  • While actual racism and sexism seems to have mostly faded away in the UNSC, there's still lingering prejudices related to those from either the Outer or Inner Colonies.
  • Later on Gron, one of the hunters brought to represent Menagerie, practically embodied this, as the man was basically a jerkass bigot in all but name. And throughout the venture on the Midnight Summer, deemed the war with the Covenant as a "human problem" and where the Faunus shouldn’t get involved in. Later even after seeing the Covenant glass Vyraj to nothing, he still strongly maintains this belief, if not became even more affirmed in the idea they should not get involved in the "human’s war", despite acknowledging what the Covenant are doing is evil. In fact at some point on Peponi he even considered with Sienna that the possibility of Faunus negotiating with the Covenant on the premise they aren’t like the humans and can work an alliance of all things; much to the shock and fury of Sienna to even propose such a stupid idea. Yet it’s when cornered by the Covenant forces that he grimly realizes that his belief that Faunus are separate from humanity meant nothing to the aliens; as to them Gron was the same thing.
• First Contact: The first arc AKA the prologue of the story specifically details the first contact between the UNSC and Remnant. Thankfully for both parties, it is roughly peaceful despite some hiccups and misunderstandings along the way. With the UNSC hoping to have Remnant as allies in the war against the Covenant before its too late.
• Forever War: The humans and Faunus of Remnant have fought against the Grimm for longer than recorded history. This constant struggle to survive is implied to be responsible for their Schizo Tech and directly stated to be why even an average civilian on Remnant is a Made of Iron Badass Bystander. Yet it is exactly what makes the UNSC believe that Remnant’s powerful Hunters and Huntresses and their esoteric powers and tech are what is needed to save them from the Covenant’s genocidal campaign.
• Functional Magic: Ozpin explains to Halsey that Aura, Semblances, and Dust are all not magic since magic is by essence unquantifiable. In contrast, Aura, Semblances, and Dust all have rules that they stick to. Yet this doesn’t exactly satisfy Halsey whatsoever and remarks how they can’t just break physics by thinking really hard.
• Gaia's Lament: Remnant was "lightly" glassed by the Covenant during their invasion, and while the damage is noted to be relatively minor, it's still pretty hideous. Most of the western desert of Sanus was reduced to glass, as was the unnamed northwestern continent, and enough of the glaciers of Solitas were melted away to cause a massive rise in sea level. Most notably, however, Lake Matsu on Mistral was completely boiled away... revealing extensive Forerunner structures deep below on the lakebed.
• Game Changer: Some in the UNSC think Remnant could be the key to victory against the Covenant, although others opt to believe that, at best, Remnant will be a very useful asset instead. Yet Word of God explains that both sides are basically wrong and right, that while Remnant is indeed a game changer in the tide of this war, they will have only slowed down the war’s canon result, not let the UNSC win it entirely.
• Gilligan Cut: In Chapter 1, Ruby wishes that she could meet aliens one day and befriend them. Immediately following this is a scene showing the Master Chief himself fighting the Covenant in a completely unfriendly and brutal way. All the while the UNSC are struggling to defeat the Covenant and sustain heavy casualties in the process.
• Greater-Scope Villain: There are currently two of them.
  • The Covenant is this to Remnant. A theocratic collective of alien species that the UNSC has stated will find them eventually and need to unite together in order to avoid being eradicated by the Covenant. While the first chapter reveals RWBY characters facing them alongside the UNSC, the chapters afterwards go back to tell the story of how everything lead up to the first chapter.
    • They are also this to the Insurrection, with some Innies realizing this and joining the UNSC. A month of fighting to defeat the Insurrection on Vyraj ends up being rendered pointless when the Covenant shows up only a few days after the UNSC captures the Insurgent leadership, with most of the population being wiped out without a fight as the few UNSC ships in the system are forced to flee.
  • Salem can be seen as this to the UNSC. While many like Halsey and John consider the Grimm, while quite dangerous, not a serious threat in the long run, those who know of Salem don't think otherwise. And given Salem’s interest in them, it is only a matter of time before she decides to more directly address the UNSC once knowing more about them. With the Action Prologue showing how she is planning to align with the Covenant and most likely manipulate them for her agenda. At the moment, her existence is kept secret outside of a few select individuals in Ozpin’s secret circle, but after Haki's attack during the First Contact Summit and the hints she left in her mad raving’s alongside the coincidence of the events, Halsey is beginning to suspect that something else is going on behind the scenes, with Ozpin at the center of it.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: The conflicts between the UNSC and Insurrection, especially when compared to the Human-Covenant War.
  • On the one hand, the Insurrectionists have a point in desiring greater autonomy for individual colonies as well as fighting against the stark class divides between the wealthier Inner Colonies and poorer Outer Colonies. There are also legitimate arguments to be made that the UNSC is highly authoritarian, prone to heavy-handed responses to perceived threats to their power such as the infamous nuking of the colony Far Isle after a local rebellion spiraled out of control. Not to mention that the Insurrection didn't start off violently, it merely escalated to that point after peaceful protests seemingly weren't going anywhere.
  • On the other hand, the Insurrectionists have murdered millions of people over the decades through their terrorist attacks, ranging from assassinations to car bombings and even nuking human colonies themselves. Most infamously, the Insurrection largely attempted to assist the Covenant at the beginning of the Human-Covenant War, an act that led to dozens of colonies being glassed and millions of people dying. Most Insurrectionists saw this and either went underground or held their nose and signed up with the UNSC. Those who remain are nothing more than die-hard extremists who would rather see their colonies burn than live under UNSC rule, continuing their terrorist activities and actively making it harder for the UNSC to fight the Covenant.
• Had to Be Sharp: Thanks to Remnant being such a hellish Death World due to the monstrous and endless Grimm, the native humans and Faunus have developed superior strength, speed, endurance, agility, and reflexes compared to the "ordinary" humans from Earth and her colonies. Heck, Hannibal argues that even a Remnant civilian has strength on par with a UNSC Marine; with a Hunter/Huntress easily surpassing one in spades. With the battle between Blue Team and Haki Felt clearly proving in certain areas they are superior to the UNSC’s Super Soldiers.
• Heroic BSoD: Everyone after the fall of Vyraj falls into versions of this, hitting a new emotional low from the sheer suffering and misery they've all either directly witnessed or been forced to participate in. It varies across the board, from Keyes' anguish for the fate of the crew left behind, to Qrow's angst regarding the utter lack of anything to do over Vyraj's fall. Harriet in particular vents all her frustrations on a punching bag.
• Hidden Elf Village: The entire Oum System is one, due to being abnormally "high above" the standard z-axis plane of the rest of the Milky Way galaxy compared to everyone else. Ironically, it's actually only 40 light-years away from Earth, making them (relatively speaking) fairly close to each other, with the Smart AI Hannibal musing that if it wasn't for the Insurrection and Covenant, the UNSC would've found the system and in conjunction Remnant decades ago.
• History Repeats:
  • In Chapter 11, John-117 expresses hope that the serendipity of the UNSC finding Remnant during the Human-Covenant War will prove to be as useful of a boon to humanity as was the serendipity of the SPARTAN program's existence right before the Human-Covenant War first started.
  • Lampshaded in Chapter 13, with Commander Keyes noting that the unfair treatment of Mantle by Atlas sounds uncomfortably similar to how the Outer Colonies were treated by the Inner Colonies and the United Earth Government prior to the Insurrection. And may fear that history is going to repeat itself on Remnant unless something is done.
• Honorary Uncle: Sergeant Johnson has become one for Ruby and Yang by the "present-day" (the story's prologue chapter), and it's shown that Sienna Khan was also an aunt for Blake during the time of the UNSC's First Contact with Remnant.
• Horrifying the Horror: Blademaster Ir 'Haramai, his second Rteda 'Vasovee, and the other Sangheili Zealots on Peponi are all appropriately terrified after they bear witness to Remnant's Huntsmen & Huntresses inflict a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle on their forces for the first time. Clearly being a horrific change of pace to witness their own forces getting decimated by the humans instead of usually the other way around. And later on, the survivors still have quite a hard time grasping around it.
  Rteda 'Vasovee: Blademaster... what just happened? What were those things?
  Ir 'Haramai: [stays silent for a moment before weakly shaking his head] I don't know, ‘Vasovee. I don't know.
• Hope Bringer: The UNSC is this to Remnant, with many people being excited by their presence since they think that they can help the Remnantians eventually travel beyond their homeworld and set up space colonies, finally getting themselves free from the presence of the Grimm. Yet to the UNSC Remnant is this for them, viewing the planet of Esoteric humans and their unique abilities/tech being what could finally turn the tide of the Covenant War and save them from annihilation.
• Hope Spot: Johnson, Qrow, and the Huntsmen have nearly recovered a data module containing information that will inevitably lead the Covenant to Remnant, then Atriox shows up, and things go to Hell in a handbasket within seconds.
• Human Aliens: Discussed and lampshaded, with both the UNSC and Remnant being understandably quite baffled by how the "aliens" they've encountered are virtually identical to that of ordinary humans. With the Faunus despite their Little Bit Beastly traits are practically human as well to the UNSC. Leading to both sides trying to understand how this could be possible, with both sides having their own disturbing theories…
• Human Subspecies: After dissecting the bodies of both a Faunus and some Remnant-native humans, Hannibal comes to the conclusion that Remnant's inhabitants might be almost identical from a biological makeup and even DNA perspective to Earth humans, there are enough taxological differences that they're still not quite "human" either. Not only do the Faunus' various Little Bit Beastly attributes actually work (i.e., a cat Faunus' additional set of feline ears can pick up and interpret sound even better than their human ears can, leading to them having significantly superior hearing when compared to "normal" humans), but Remnant humans have denser and more tightly packed muscles, sturdier and denser bones, neurons that are more receptive to electrical signals, and more robust walls for their hearts and circulatory systems. Hannibal muses that Remnant's Death World nature is probably responsible for these differences, comparing it to the difference between brown bears and grizzly bears. Both being relatively the same species, but due to environmental factors for several generations genetically split off at some point. With the latter species evolving to be physically stronger and sturdier than the former one.
• I'm a Humanitarian: A few Covenant species, particularly Brutes and Jackals, tend to eat the remains of their human victims. This was the unfortunate fate of the survivors of Khembalung.
• Improbable Weapon User: Well, this is Remnant. Creative weaponry is a must, no matter how ludicrous it may be.
  • Haki Felt lays a serious beatdown on the SPARTAN Blue Team with a…weaponized teapot. One able to spit fire, ice, and rocks, yes, but still a teapot.
  • Clover Ebi later gets sheer incredulity from a UNSC engineer for fighting with a fishing pole. But later proves its utility by managing to decimate a good number of Covenant ground forces with his fishing pole combined with his semblance.
• In Medias Res: The story starts with a prologue showing the Covenant attacking Remnant many years after the UNSC made contact, with Team RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY fighting alongside UNSC forces. The first chapter begins before the UNSC finds Remnant, and establishes that this is set several years before the show.^note A decade, to be precise, as Jaune, who was 17 at the beginning of the show, is stated to be 7 at the time of first contact
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the point of divergence being around a decade before the series started, and the UNSC having direct dealings with all of their families, Team RWBY still forms with the same name and members. Similarly, Teams JNPR and CFVY also form with the same names and members.
• Instant Expert: Downplayed, but it is noted that humans (including Faunus), both from the UNSC and from Remnant, have an almost instinctive understanding of Covenant technology, often only taking a few seconds or minutes to figure out how to use things like Plasma Rifles or Ghosts. According to Dare, ONI is not entirely sure why this is, but their current theory is that it is due to the Covenant basing their technology on Forerunner tech, which tends to act oddly when humans interact with it.
• Just Toying with Them: Haki Felt's attitude during the majority of her fight with Blue Team. In the first half she easily overpowers the SPARTANs and ends up stabbing Fred in the kidney, and as Master Chief notes, she wasn't taking them seriously and was merely playing around. This comes back to bite her in the ass later after the SPARTANs manage to understand how her Semblance works and come up with a plan to beat her. They manage to put her against the wall, and when Haki realizes that she might get captured she stops playing around and starts fighting for real. But by then, it's already too late and she ends up getting killed. Yet it still doesn’t stop John from later remarking how if it wasn’t for Haki’s arrogance that made her not take them seriously and her being batshit insane, she would’ve killed them without much effort.

Tropes K-Z

• Kill All Humans:
  • The Covenant's main MO, something that Halsey, Admiral Cole, and Sergeant Johnson show with images of their colonies' glassings, horrifying those who learned of it. After being shown several glassed worlds, Sienna Khan tries to weakly argue that since the Faunus aren't human, they could be spared. Unfortunately for her and everyone else, Johnson then grimly explains that ultimately, Faunus are no different than humans (especially in the Covenant's eyes) beyond being a subspecies at best, and they would also get massacred by the Covenant until they were completely wiped out. Much to the horror of Sienna and Ghira to hear the unfortunate truth of their catastrophic situation.
  • The Grimm as well. Prior to learning what exactly the Grimm were, the UNSC were highly disturbed at just how aggressive the Grimm were to everything in their vicinity, noticing right away that it wasn't anything an animal would naturally do. And is one of the many things that makes the UNSC view them as unnatural abominations or "hellspawn” in Johnson’s snarky summation of the Grimm.
• Kick the Dog: Almost literally. Despite some of their members admiring their loyalty and usefulness, the Covenant consider dogs to have been corrupted by humanity, and as such believe they also need to be wiped out. Which is just flat out ridiculous, but is likely this is the same viewpoint the Covenant have for all animal life on every Human colony as a whole.
• Laser Blade: Abby's Semblance allows her to store Aura in her family's weapon, Mossflower, and use the energy to encase its blade in pure Aura. The more Aura she uses, the larger the Aura blade will be.
• Les Collaborateurs: Early in the Human-Covenant War, when the true scope of the Covenant threat wasn't entirely known, most major Insurrectionist groups attempted to ally themselves and cooperate with the Covenant against the UNSC instead of teaming up with the UNSC against a common enemy. They did this under the mistaken belief that the war to be against the UNSC specifically and not against humanity in general. All this cooperation accomplished was the destruction of several dozen colonies and millions of deaths before they wised up, and most who attempted died anyway.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Ozpin admits that he has no idea if the Brother Gods made the humans of the UNSC and by extension, Earth, or if they already existed before them. Likewise, the UNSC have no idea where Remnant even came from or how humans are even there to begin with.
• Masquerade: Remnant's existence, at first, is kept a tightly held secret among the UNSC, with only those directly involved in its first contact and the upper leadership of the UNSC in the know. This ends up creating friction between the UNSC and the Faunus delegates on the Midsummer Night, as this statute of secrecy extends to the Faunus as well, thus prompting Keyes to reluctantly order the Faunus to mask their animal traits. While most begrudgingly accept this, even if they are disappointed, the most of the White Fang are very much displeased, with one of them nearly coming to blows over his disagreement over the policy.
• Modern Stasis: As Qrow notes while he and the Vale Huntsmen are on Vyraj and walk among the civilian population, the UNSC’s colonies aren’t too different from being in any of the kingdoms. As barring the UNSC’s space technology, Smart A.I’s and other minor details, the UNSC/UEG seems to have roughly the same level of technology as Remnant does. Heck Qrow even makes the claim that it almost seems going to space is just taking what they have home and tidying it up instead of anything out of a Sci-Fi movie. Yet this also makes the veteran huntsman quite concerned, since if their outer space cousins are around the same tech level as Remnant, then it only cements the fact that Remnant will not stand a chance against the Covenant.
• Mêlée à Trois: As shown in the prologue, the Covenant had to deal with Grimm attacks as much as the forces of the UNSC and Remnant do during their invasion of Remnant. Burpoion (the Covenant commander of the invasion effort) specifically notes that the "Shadow Beasts" wreaked absolute havoc on his forces, and the Grimm's arrival during the Covenant attack on Beacon is even shown to have given the defenders enough time to launch a counterattack and secure their defenses from the Covenant onslaught.
• Might Makes Right: Subverted hard. Some of the leaders of the UNSC, namely Colonel Ackerson, believe that if it comes down to it they can just force Remnant under their control by threatening them with orbital bombardment. Cole states how terrible an idea that is and explains the various legitimate reasons why it backfire against them. Ultimately, they decide to continue their peace talks with Remnant in pursuit of a mutually beneficial alliance instead of brazenly trying to annex them. Yet those like Parangosky are still plotting to pragmatically annex Remnant down the road, via making them economically bound to the UNSC.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Burpoion and the other leaders of the Covenant's invasion of Remnant were absolutely shocked after realizing that they'd unwittingly "defaced" a Holy Bastion (Forerunner Shield World) by glassing Remnant. They were all so horrified by their unintentional heresy that Burpoion had himself and the other surviving members of the command staff whipped seven times for every minute that they had glassed Remnant. The rest of the command staff are mentioned as having either committed suicide out of guilt or been killed by the other repenting crew members upon realizing the severity of their sin.
  • The staff of the UNSC Everest are understandably horrified after learning that their arrival in the Oum System caused enough anxiety and fear for numerous bloody Grimm attacks to succeed against outlying settlements, meaning that they're indirectly responsible for the deaths of several thousand people. Even after being reassured that it wasn't his fault and they wouldn't blame him for their deaths, Vice Admiral Cole is still shown to be disgusted with himself while briefly mulling over the horrific details of what his actions wrought in Chapter 13.
  • ODST Lieutenant Kalib breaks down crying in guilt after she realizes that she made the wrong choice in leaving innocent civilians to die at the hands of the Grimm as noted below under To Be Lawful or Good.
• Mythology Gag: Quite a few.
  • The solar system where Remnant is located is named the "Oum" System, after Monty Oum (the creator of RWBY).
  • Chapter 1 has a young Ruby and Yang reenact the first part of the Halo 3: Starry Night trailer, with Ruby asking “You ever wonder what’s out there?”
  • John-117 wonders about inner discord within the Covenant, but discounts it as unlikely and, even if it exists, not anything important.
  • In Chapter 9, Ozpin can't help but jump in surprise when he hears Dr. Halsey talk, silently noting that she sounds remarkably similar to Salem. In Real Life, both Salem and Halsey are voiced by Jen Taylor.
  • In Chapter 12, when talking about AI and robotic forces, Halsey discusses the dangers of rampancy (which her own A.I., Cortana, will later be forced to deal with in Halo 4) and in a specific allusion to the multi-part Volume 3 finale of RWBY, Ironwood shudders in horror after contemplating Atlesian Knights turning on everyone and going rogue.
    • Also in Chapter 12, when the Headmasters and leadership of the White Fang are informed of the Covenant, a horrified Professor Rumpole muses aloud that the whole scenario of the Covenant and UNSC "sounds like the plot of one of the first-person-shooter video games I’ve confiscated from my students”.
• Naked People Are Funny: As the technicians are explaining cryosleep to their Remnantian passengers, massive awkwardness ensues when said passengers learn they will have to spend the travel in the buff. Because freezer burn is a bitch.
• Nerd Action Hero:
  • The Master Chief and SPARTANS, surprising everyone around them. Master Chief in Chapter 4 gives very scientific lines of thought regarding what lifeforms they could run into and who is living on Remnant, leaving the ODSTs awkwardly speechless for a moment.
  • Blue Team as a whole as they quickly learn from their first battle with Haki, which they use to put her down during the second battle.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Keyes, Johnson, and Halsey repeatedly make remarks (particularly near the end of Chapter 11) that while Remnant is radically different from Earth, it does still have things one can be found on their worlds - like racism, inequality, war and so-on which even they still have and haven't entirely dealt with. Keyes himself admits that most of said problems aren't even actually behind the UNSC, just temporarily covered up due to the severity of the war with the Covenant.
• Oh, Crap!: Jacques Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company has one upon learning that the UNSC primarily uses nuclear fusion reactors to generate their power, meaning that they're significantly more advanced than Remnant is and so could easily outcompete his current monopoly.
• Oh, My Gods!: Multiple times, Remnantians are shown using references to the Brother Gods in their oaths (i.e., Robyn Hill swearing "Oh Gods" when panicking at one point).
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Aura, Semblances, and the Creatures of Grimm to the UNSC (and, by extension, the Covenant). They simply never expected such things to exist, and as such were caught completely unprepared when they came into conflict with the Grimm as well as Haki Felt, a crazed Huntress under Salem's employ. Haki ends up nearly killing Blue Team due to them underestimating Aura's and Semblence’s effects on a person.
  • The Covenant towards Remnant. While Ozpin and the other Headmasters suspected the UNSC was at war with something called the Covenant, they did not anticipate them actually being a bunch of genocidal aliens, and all of them were taken off-guard after learning just how bad it was and worse yet, how they may be next unless they join with the UNSC to stopping the Covenant.
  • The SPARTAN-IIs to Haki as well. She didn't expect the UNSC to have soldiers capable of standing against her. While on an individual level that was true, and their first engagement was very much in her favor, together Blue Team was able to formulate a plan that turned the situation around. By the time Haki realized how much danger she was in, it was too late and she ended up dying.
• Paranoia Fuel: invoked In-Universe, the arrival of the Everest above Remnant is this to the planet's population. It doesn't take long for telescopes focused on the ship to notice that it's a warship with some very clear battle damage. Ozpin even points out that the ship wouldn't have to fire their guns to destroy Remnant since they were parked right beside the shattered moon, which would be ammunition aplenty for a Colony Drop for all but any living being the size of a mouse to survive the fallout.
• Patchwork Fic: invoked The fanfic's version of Halo canon mixes in the primary continuity of the games with elements from the Silver Timeline (a.k.a. Halo (2022)), along with a few broad allusions to other Microsoft games (most notably the main cast of Modern Warfare being a group of ODSTs here). Word of God has also implied some elements from the RWBY: Ice Queendom and the non-canonical RWBY manga might be utilized if they're seen as appropriate for the fanfic's story.
• Powered Armor: In addition to the famed MJOLNIR series of Halo canon, the prologue shows that the UNSC will eventually develop the ARTEMIS power armour specifically for use by Huntsmen & Huntresses, with Qrow wearing a set when he shows up alongside Sergeant Johnson. In fact, Harriet and her combat exoskeleton Fast Knuckles may have likely to have been the progenitor inspiration for the ARTEMIS armor’s creation and mass usage for Remnant’s natives given the Midsummer Night’s technician’s interest in the Ace Ops exoskeleton.
• Propaganda Machine: ONI Section II is entirely devoted to the development and spread of pro-UNSC propaganda. One of their appointed tasks is masking just how badly the war against the Covenant is actually going, making it seem that the UNSC either holding them off or outright winning when the exact opposite is happening. They're remarkably efficient at it, too, managing to turn the Skirmish at Khembalung, which was the UNSC Midsummer Night walking into a trap by Jackal Privateers and nearly biting the dust before edging out a victory, into a decisive UNSC operation against the actual Covenant navy to liberate a conquered planet being used as a staging ground against other human colonies. None of the Huntsmen and Huntresses, especially Robyn Hill, are particularly pleased about that. However, following the Fall of Vyraj, they are a lot more understanding: the propaganda is a necessary evil to keep large amounts of humanity from giving up out of dispair.
• Robot Soldier: General Ironwood is very interested in developing armies of robotic soldiers to protect Remnant's people from the Grimm in lieu of sending in human soldiers and Huntsmen. When he learns of the UNSC's AIs, he immediately thinks of how to incorporate such technology into the Atlesian Knight program. Yet Halsey also explains the cons of using such an autonomous robotic army, such as the possibility of them going rogue due to a virus or a smart A.I piloting them going rampant, much to the dread of Ironwood when considering that possibility and partially why they don’t utilize robotic soldiers. Yet Halsey also believes there is certainly benefit for the UNSC to pursue implementing the Atlesian Knights when seeing how advanced they are.
• Sergeant Rock: Sergeant Avery J. Johnson, of course. He ends up becoming very popular with the rest of the kingdoms' leadership, impressed by his professionalism as well as his friendly and honest disposition.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: invoked As in Halo canon, the Covenant are the "Aliens as Religious Fundamentalists" version. Word of God even lampshaded this in one of their commentaries on SpaceBattles:
  xTRESTWHOx (Author of Dust and Echoes): The Covenant are like the ultimate repudiation of that belief that technological progress will inevitably rise with moral standards. We've never really seen that. Things just...expand, more than anything, it's just that the Covenant took it much farther than anything people could have imagined."
• Schizo Tech: The UNSC are frequently shown to be both impressed and baffled by Remnant's eclectic technological base. On the one hand, they have impressively advanced robotics (albeit operated by Dumb AIs) and have other notable advancements (such as the Weltraum Observatory's high-powered telescope) alongside Remnants incredibly advanced mechashift weaponry that is primarily utilized by their Hunters and Huntresses. On the other hand, Atlas is the only Kingdom to have a unified army, and virtually all of the arsenals used by the Huntsmen are Retractable Weapons that while advanced, integrate what would normally be obsolete features on a modern battlefield (i.e., Qrow Branwen's scythe-shotgun-sword Harbinger) into their design. But given these weapons are designed to slay the endless hordes of Grimm on their planet, is somewhat understandable. For their part, the Remnantians consider the UNSC's reliance on, by their standards, downright crude ballistics with very few moving parts strange, especially in light of being space people with FTL travel who can power their vehicles off of water. With Watts even remarking how their firearms are outright more "primitive" and uncreative in comparison to their own weapons. Yet its likely when both minds of the UNSC and Remnant work together once their alliance is cemented, will create various innovations and weaponry that iron out the flaws with each other’s technology and add the best qualities of both civilizations tech together. Such as the ARTEMIS armor seen and used by Qrow and Johnson in the Prologue that is already a first example of what is to come in the future.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: After spending months on Vyraj fighting the Insurrection, managing to finally track down and capture their leadership and all but wipe them out, the UNSC is forced to abandon the planet when the Covenant shows up shortly afterwards, with most of the population being unable to evacuate before the glassing starts. In the end, nothing the UNSC and the Insurgency did on Vyraj mattered when it came to the war with the Covenant, to the horror of the Huntsmen, who can do nothing but watch the glassing from the bridge of the Midsummer Night.
• Shout-Out:
  • After Ruby asks her about aliens in Chapter 1, Yang asks if it is because of a film they watched featuring an alien and a bike.
  • When Fred's team of ODSTs is exploring the deserts of Vacuo in Chapter 4, one of the ODST mentions that it reminds him of "an old book set on a desert planet filled with massive sandworms." One of the other ODSTs replies that it personally reminded them of Tatooine.
  • When Johnson is showing Qrow one of the Warthogs brought by the UNSC to Remnant, the Huntsman remarks that the vehicle "looks more like a big cat, like a puma." Johnson just chuckles at his remark and says that the UNSC gets that a lot.
  • The villainous Haki Felt, keeping with RWBY's character naming and concept conventions on old fairy tales and stories, is based after the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
  • A member of the White Fang team sent on the mission to learn about the Covenant is a mouse Faunus named Abby Redwall. Fittingly, she uses a claymore that has been passed down through her family for generations.
  • Similarly, the Vale Huntsmen and Huntress sent on the mission to learn about the Covenant are all strongly inspired by characters from The Chronicles of Narnia: a Faunus with goat legs named Thomas Cornell is an homage to Mr. Tumnus, Casper Marine's looks and horn-sword (coupled with a Portal Network-based Semblance) references Caspian X, and the very short Sepia Honeycreep and his rapier evoke Reepicheep the mouse.
  • A Scottish ODST captain with an amazing mustache and sideburn combo named John Price shows up leading an ODST unit called Taskforce 141. Said unit also contains troopers going by the names of Soap, Gaz, Ghost, and Nikolai.
  • There have been a few mentions of a Remnant sport called 'Griffball' across the fic, the only mentioned detail of the game was that the ball looks like or is the size of a football.
• Soldier vs. Warrior:
  • The basic dichotomy between SPARTANs and Huntsmen/Huntresses. This is exemplified in the battle between Blue Team and Haki.
  • It gets turned on it head in one respect: Remnant can raise and train their Huntsmen much faster and in greater numbers than it takes for the UNSC to create SPARTANs. As Cole points out, in the twenty-three years since the start of the SPARTAN programs, the UNSC has only produced 633 Spartan-IIs and -IIIs, with numerous subjects being killed or crippled, and most of the first 300 Spartan-IIIs dying during Operation Prometheus. Meanwhile, the four academies combined have an average of 400 graduates every year. Not to mention the incredible battle prowess a veteran Huntsmen or Huntress possesses thanks to their naturally stronger physiology from living on a Death World combined with their various Aura and Semblances make them deadly powerhouses to fight against. Yet SPARTANs on the other hand despite lacking numbers, have very decent combat experience and extensively honed skills that allow them to adapt to almost any scenario or battlefield; which is what makes them capable of changing the tide of battle. This is best shown as when they learn how Haki’s semblence works and immediately turn the tables against her. But only because Haki was arrogant and mentally unstable, and if she wasn’t either, would’ve spelled Blue Teams demise. Yet it’s very likely, after that encounter, Halsey and the UNSC will be working to close the power gap between SPARTANs and Huntsmen/Huntresses via upgrading their MJOLNR armors and weapons beyond what they were in canon. Not to mention what else ONI may have planned to further even the scales between them…
• Squee: Ruby's response when Sergeant Johnson gives her a Spartan Laser as a "birthday gift" in the prologue.
• Super-Soldier:
  • The SPARTAN-IIs, of course. With their years of training, decades of combat experience against the Insurrection and the Covenant, as well as their MJOLNIR armor and various augmentations, they are a highly effective and dangerous force on the battlefield.
  • To the UNSC, Remnant's Huntsmen and Huntresses are the same thing, if not even more so thanks to their aura and semblances, with an added bonus of their training being mass-produced on a yearly schedule. They're the primary reason as to why the UNSC wants to ally with Remnant against the Covenant, especially after seeing how a well-trained Huntress stacks up against their SPARTANs.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • The Ace-Ops and Happy Huntresses. Both being equal in skill and ability, but due to serving different goals and people, neither side really like each other. This is exemplified when the Happy Huntresses are allowed on the trip to space, much to the Ace-Ops' annoyance. In turn, the Ace-Ops are asked to look over the Happy Huntresses, who are also not particularly pleased about the arrangement but not in a position to argue.
  • Later extends to some of the members of the White Fang onboard the UNSC Midsummer Night, on account of the order to disguise themselves by covering their Faunus traits. Gron Treakke, whose skin is covered in scales, nearly comes to blows over it, and while Sienna Khan is able to calm him down, she makes it very clear that she is not happy about it and will inform Ghira Belladonna and the rest of the White Fang of the decision when they return. For his part, Commander Jacob Keyes understands why the Faunus are upset, with him actually agreeing that the order is repugnant on a moral level if regrettably understandable on a logical side, but he also tells her in no unclear terms that if Gron attempts anything else he will throw him in the brig for the rest of the mission. He also has ODSTs tail the White Fang to monitor them, just in case they try to start something.
• Tempting Fate:
  • A young Ruby hopes to meet aliens and befriend them. Yeah, about that...
  • Glynda states that as long as nothing jolts the system of what conflicts Remnant is currently facing (Grimm, White Fang, and the SDC) everyone should be fine. Then, less than 2 weeks later, the system gets jolted when the UNSC warship arrives...
  • Qrow notes to himself that he doubts he'll ever see Sergeant Johnson again. As the prologue and later chapters shows, not only do they end up working together fairly often, Johnson will eventually become an Honorary Uncle to Ruby and Yang, complete with an unofficial competition between the two of them over who's the "cooler" uncle. With Johnson ending up becoming the primary handler for the delegation of Huntsmen on board the Midsummer Night.
• This Cannot Be!: The Covenant as a whole has this reaction when it discovers that Remnant is in fact a "Holy Bastion", their word for a Forerunner Shield World, which Burpoion had partially glassed. Thel ‘Vadamee also has this reaction on the grounds of how humans can be native to a Holy Bastion in the first place.
• Time Master: Haki Felt's Semblance, Murder the Time, as described by Halsey is a "temporal reversion field in a small area around her".
• To Be Lawful or Good: Both the Master Chief and ODST Lieutenant Kalib are faced with this when Grimm are attacking villages during their recon on Remnant. The former takes action (using a loophole in orders/UNSC mandate.) saving the civilians but at the cost of an ODST's life which the Chief feels guilty for. The latter follows her orders to the letter, letting the village be wiped out. As a consequence, Lieutenant Kalib's squad is completely spared, but she herself is traumatized out of guilt and shame on top of becoming hated by her follow ODSTs for not doing anything. With Master Chief remarking how it will unfortunately be a long time before Kalib will be fit for duty again.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • invoked Word of God has noted that they are intentionally writing ONI to be the "Token Lawful Evil Teammate" of the UNSC, being the nasty associate that the rest of the UNSC hates for being despicable bastards but are kept around since they're Necessarily Evil, and an incredibly useful and vitally needed resource against the Covenant.
  • Reflecting his character in Halo canon, Colonel Ackerson of the UNSC Security Council. He's the first one to suggest a brutal invasion of Remnant if they refuse to comply with the UNSC (even noting that they could potentially bomb the Kingdoms from orbit), and it's only when Vice Admiral Cole underlines how terrible of an idea that would be is he able to convince Admirals Standforth and Parangosky (the latter of ONI) of the more pragmatic and useful reasons for working with the Remnantians that he's able to have Ackerson and General Strauss's opinions overruled and a more peaceful dialogue with Remnant be preserved moving forward. Yet Word of God states that Parangosky is still plotting to annex Remnant, albeit peacefully through making them economically dependent on the UNSC, in order to prevent Remnant from being seen as proof of independence and incite the Insurrectionists.
  • Gron Traekke of the White Fang's contingent aboard the Midsummer Night is consistently portrayed as an obnoxious and rude Jerkass who feels that the UNSC should be left to their fate and the Grimm should instead be prioritized over the Covenant.
  • UNSC Private Adriaan, while not evil by any means, turns out to be a former Insurrectionist of Biko.
• Trial by Friendly Fire: To buy time for the Covenant team on Peponi to escape with the data cache, Atriox deploys a stolen bubble shield and calls down a plasma mortar bombardment on his own position. Not only does he survive, but the bombardment also wipes out most of the UNSC marines, kills two of the Valean Huntsmen, and grievously wounds Harriet Bree.
• Uncanny Valley: In-Universe; Both the UNSC and Remnant find it very eerie and uncomfortable how similar both groups are to each other while still having enough differences to make their alien nature to the other all the more apparent. Most notably, Qrow finds the SPARTANs of Blue Team facing off against Haki Felt to be downright freaky to watch, with him describing the Spartans' movements as so inhumanly controlled and detached from any semblance of emotion that he honestly assumed they were really robots until Fred got wounded and started to bleed through his armor.
• Universal Ammo: Averted. In order to keep them supplied, the UNSC has all the Hunters aboard Midsummer Night who use firearms rechamber their weapons to use UNSC ammunition. The Hunters also take the time to manufacture Dust-propelled versions of the UNSC rounds, with the added bonus that regular UNSC firearms can also use them if needed.
• The Unpronounceable: When discussing the various Covenant species Qrow has trouble with a few of their names. Specifically with the Hunters (Mgalekgolo) and Brutes (Jiralhanae) with him not even trying to pronounce the former and giving up partway with the latter.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Qrow can willingly turn himself into a crow in order to fly around and spy on things, a very useful skill for Ozpin's chief agent.
• Wham Line: "Winter Contingency declared. Evacuate immediately."
• What Could Have Been: Word of God states that the original draft for Gronn's death scene has him killing the Marines who dragged him to safety, and surrendering himself to the approaching Covenant squad only to be shot by the Elite who recognized what happened with a discarded magnum. ^note  Covenant Elites frown upon the usage of captured human weaponry to make it clear on how angry Gronn's killer is by his actions.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Certain sects of the White Fang, led by Sienna Khan, advocate for a far more proactive and violent approach in combating anti-Faunus racism on Remnant. While Ghira Belladonna advocates for a more peaceful resolution, the Office of Naval Intelligence has picked up the beginnings of an internal power struggle that threatens to turn the peaceful civil rights organization into the group of violent terrorists that the White Fang became in canon, similar to the origins of many Insurrectionist cells. They hope to ingratiate the UNSC with the Faunus of Remnant to avert this, but only time will tell if their efforts are successful.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • The initial scouting teams of Spartans and ODSTs are nearly overwhelmed by the Grimm, which is later partially attributed to their choice of packing only lighter small arms rather than the heavier weapons they bring to Amity, where they perform much better by comparison.
  • Part of the reason for why Haki Felt was initially so successful against Blue Team was that not only was Blue Team intentionally pulling their punches since they were under orders to capture her rather than kill her, but they were also all already somewhat tired from having already killed several dozen Grimm and the Alpha Boarbatusk leading the horde of Grimm against Amity Colosseum, and their MJOLNIR armor was still not fully fixed from their previous scraps on the planet. Had they not suffered these problems and were in top shape, it is likely Blue Team’s fight with Haki Felt would’ve been roughly more even, but still quite challenging nonetheless..
• Worthy Opponent: During the prologue, Ruby is forced to fight against a highly experienced Elite assassin that was able to sneak into Beacon and tries to kill her after she snipes a few of the leaders of the invasion force attacking Beacon. While Ruby is ultimately defeated, she still gives the fight of her life and the Elite openly regards her as this, being visibly impressed by her furious screaming and repeated hits against his arm as he holds her against the wall and prepares to gut her.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The lack of widespread armies by the Kingdoms of Remnant (Atlas excluded) is understandable in that it helps prevent inter-kingdom conflict and leaves the Huntsmen to tackle the Grimm head-on, but Johnson quickly realizes that the corresponding reliance on local militias will leave them proverbial sitting ducks for the Covenant during an invasion.
• Your Days Are Numbered:
  • It's revealed after Haki Felt's death that due to her repeated exposure to Lightning Dust, she had gained severe enough brain damage that even if she hadn't gotten killed by Blue Team, she likely would've only lived for at most another decade, and only if she immediately stopped using Dust and got advanced medical treatments that she could only possibly receive from the UNSC. This is likely why we never saw her in Canon as by the time it rolled around, Haki Felt would’ve already perished from her deteriorating condition or slain by someone like Qrow.
  • Averted, In the end of the Peponi arc the Cartographer data block was destroyed, preventing the Covenant from finding out about Remnant's location and living up to the trope. Though going by the Action Prologue this only buys Remnant about another decade.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters:
  • The Insurrection desires to obtain independence on behalf of their individual human colonies from what they perceive to be an authoritarian dictatorship in the UEG/UNSC. While at first they used peaceful methods to obtain more independence, and there is certainly merit to calling the UNSC authoritarian, they eventually shifted into using outright terrorist attacks such as mass shootings, public bombings, boarding UNSC vessels and slaughtering the crew, and even nuking entire colonies in extreme circumstances.
  • To the UNSC, the Insurrectionists are nothing more than power-hungry, violent terrorists who lost any goodwill for their cause with their actions and deserve nothing more than to be put down. One member joined the UNSC after his planet was destroyed by The Covenant, and views anyone who continues the fight when there's the issue of human extinction on the line as terrorists and murderers who would rather have humanity burn than let the UNSC be in charge of anything.
  • It's noted that the Insurrection has actually gotten worse due to the Covenant, as most of the saner members have realized what's at stake and joined the UNSC, meaning that most of the ones still fighting the UNSC are the ones who were already the most extreme, and no longer have anyone trying to rein them in.
• Zeppelins from Another World: Airships are used as the primary source of transport by Remnant's leaders, and are given particular focus for when they go to meet with the UNSC at Amity Colosseum.

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