Save the world? Fuck that, I want to make money! (RWBY SI) ch 38

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Ever since humanity looked at the stars, we've always desired to rise up to it. Remnant is no exception to this. There was a brief period of space craze when Dust technology took off. Brilliant minds of their time had thought about finding means to explore out of the planet. Atlas had sent a specialized craft up to see if it was possible. Then, Remnant was given a shock when the dust suddenly became inert and the craft went into a free fall back into the planet. The crew was fortunate that power returned before their craft turned into a miniature comet and the crew into paste. That episode had all but killed enthusiasm for space travel as what was the point in going out when the technology would stop working?

Unfortunately for dust, Royal and Imperial was not going to have any of that. You see, nothing was going to stop the descendants of Wayland the Smith from pushing the very edge of innovation and making a little money on the side.

Pushing into space had always been in the works, it represented a way out of Remnant and avoiding Ozpin and Salem's nasty divorce. If defeating Salem was impossible then escaping the planet was the second option. I would rather risk going out into the void so space rather than dealing with a couples nasty divorce.

Before going all out into that though, infrastructure has to be built before leaving. The first being satellites.

The advantages of satellites is self evident. They weren't a terrestrial thing that Cinder can break into and ruin. Grimm couldn't break out of atmosphere either. With the establishment of satellites, I could push out sophisticated technology such as GPS that would not just be a godsend for the civilian sector but for the military too. The CCT system had its uses, admittedly. It was the system which had brought Remnant together like one massive wifi router. But much like a wifi router, the father someone was from the cities the less effective the signal was. The boonies was most affected by this, leaving the frontier once again out of the wider world. With the establishment of a satellite network, it would allow for further exploitation of the frontier. I had the data to back up the claim, the sheer amount of resources that lay waiting to be harvested out there was money that was just chilling. The only reason why outside exploitation was rarely done was because of security concerns, difficulty of communication and transport both of supplies and the raw materials themselves.

But first, Remnant must pierce the sky.

I had already forged a satellite. With what little time I could devote to it, I had also forged the little individual pieces that would allow it to work. Again, all of Remnants tech relied on dust. From the AAR, the engines weren't the only pieces of tech that failed but everything, even the weapons and scrolls of the crew failed to power up. This told me two things.

One, once Remnant was off planet our technology level was going to revert to zero. Two, I was going to single-handedly have to bring forth non-Dust tech into fruition which meant a shit ton of work. Neither things did not fill me with confidence. While it sounded like a far off concern, the universe was absolutely massive. What if we met the Covenant or the Zerg? Again, I did nurse a theory about Dust. It stopped working when it left the atmosphere but was restored when the airship had passed by the Karman Line, the official point between space and the planet. Now this sounded like esoteric philosophical magical bullshit but it was more than likely that Dust needed to be in a planet to work. As much as I understood it, Dust was magic leftover from an age long past and from it, a gift from the God of Light. He himself was also the God of Life. If magic was life, it needed to be close to living things to work. Space had no life, it was the void hence, dust couldn't work.

This was all speculation however borne from examining the AAR of the failed space exploration. I would have to test the hypothesis out first before I could be sure. Until now riven otherwise however, I was going to operate on that assumption.

With our expansion going smoothly, I had some time to go and be ambitious. The largest thing I had brought was the HMP from Star Wars. With my Semblance, I felt I could test out my limits with magical and technological. And so with my tools in hand, I was going to see how far I could go before I had to call it quits. I was confident now.

In the privacy of home, a team of maids watching me carefully and monitoring my vitals with a personalized machine not too dissimilar from the device Goodwitch used in Volume 1, I began to work.

With effort, I began to 'strike'. Sparks flew as my aura flared. A shape formed and not too soon, I had a chest plate of glittering metal that looked to be a miniature star. I set my tools aside as I held up the chest plate. I figured that with Salem in the equation, I was going to need something that could handle her attacks. It sounded like paranoia to have a chest plate of mithril but better to have it and not need it than needing it and not having it. I was going to forge the rest of my suit much later however since I was testing my limits.

I huffed, glancing to my assistants. "How's my aura looking?"

Adeline, the maid which had watched over Emerald and now my assistant, answered dutifully. "You're down to seventy percent, sir." The other maids gushed to each other as they saw the shining metal I held.

I raised an eyebrow. Down to eighty? Then again, mithril was a magical item of incredible potency. I took a breath, my body felt a bit weathered like I had broken into a small sprint but otherwise, I was good to go. I set my chest plate aside and took up my hammer. Time to go to my next test. I nodded towards my assistants and they rushed to clear everything out which left me enough space. Three strikes. My aura flared again and a shape took form. My breathing became manic as adrenaline poured through me. My body felt like I was being squeezed and gripped by an invisible hand. Blood poured down my nose, a brain-splitting migraine broke out through my head My knees threatened to give way but still, I pushed on. One more strike and finally, I fell.

​But it was worth it though. 

Standing before me stood in shape. It was a angular machine with a metal gray body with a sphere held together at its front. The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine was how ships in Halo did faster than light travel. It worked by opening wormholes between normal space and a dimension referred to by humanity in Halo as slipspace. 

"What...What is that?" Adeline whispered. 

"Our ticket out of the rock," I mumbled before my vision went black.

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I was in a dark place. 

Then, I heard a hammer strike. 

I felt like I was seated. I stood up. Despite knowing I had strained my body, I did not feel the strain at all. 

There was that hammer strike again. I took a look at my surroundings. It seemed that I was in a classic workshop of some kind, with all the tools and kit that any blacksmith might need. I was walking through rooms when I heard another hammer strike. I followed that sound. 

I rounded into a corner and there a figure stood. They had their backs turned against me but I could make out their shape .It was a woman before an anvil busy at work with something. Her body was a little weird, metallic in nature with what looked like roots sprouting from her back. She paused her work, as if detecting my presence. She turned around to face me. Her body appeared to be segmented metallic plates interlocking each other. Her hair was tied into a braid and her eyes were hollow and empty. Despite the sheer blackness in those eyes, she seemed to give of a kind aura. 

​When you see tall mechanical ladies with no eyes, it would have been natural to be guarded and run away. Yet, I felt neither fear nor fatigue. It was like I was floating in sea of warmth.

"You are here early," she said, surprised. Her voice was mechanical yet soothing, like a mother's voice. 

Gathering my will, I spoke out.

"Who are you? Where am I?" My voice was questioning. 

She chuckled. "You are in a place where things are made and created. This is where the spark begins that lights the fires of creation. And me? I am the one from whom you began, my little Wayland." 

She knew my name. But I did not feel guarded or alarmed, I felt delight. 

"You do?" I blurted. My cheeks flushed. 

"Of course I do," the lady laughed. She cocked her head. 

"I am after all, your ancestor." 

What?

Questions poured and formed in my mind. But before I could blurt them out, the woman hummed. "It seems you are being called. We shall meet again, my little Wayland." 

"How?" I yelled. Voices spoke in my mind, familiar voices calling out for me. 

"Do as you did...and you shall fine me again." she managed to smile despite having no mouth. 

​The darkness was purged and light returned into my vision.

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He had been chatting with new partners in his study when the door burst open and a army of panicked maids rushed through, informing him of Alexander rushing an idiot experiment to test his limits. Immediately, Gerard dropped everything that he was doing and rushed out of his study and towards the room Alexander was holding his experiment. He never ran so fast in his life. When he arrived, the worry that gripped in his heart was dashed when he rushed into the room and saw Alexander alive and awake albeit with his shirt off and being fanned by Adeline while he sat on a chair. 

Alexander looked up, smiling at him and greeting him with a warm tone. "Hello, father," 

He glanced around. The notable item which caught his eye was a shining metal plate that gleamed like starlight sitting in a corner as well as a massive machine with a cylindrical orb attached to it not a distance away. He walked up, ignoring those and rushed to his son. He knelt by him, inspecting Alexander's face. The boy may have been chipper but his eyes were bloodshot, the veins visible and pulsing. 

"What did you do?" Gerard asked quickly. 

"Experimenting my limits," Alexander answered quickly and honestly. He glanced to his creations. "And I have succeeded." 

​He coughed, badly. Adeline moved forward, patting him on the back. He took in a breath and motioned for water. Adeline produced a glass quickly and he drank it. With his throat clear, Alexander continued. "Our creations have prices to them. The more complex it is, the heavier the toll." 

"We knew that, you idiot," Gerard resisted the urge to palm his face. Each Wayland had left notes and details regarding their semblance. It was heavily emphasized not to overdo it not unless one wanted to have a one way trip into an aura break coma. The worst cases, it had quite literally killed a few of their ancestors. 

"Well, I wanted to see what was my limit," Alexander stressed. "Everyone had different limits, dad. You and I are different compared to our ancestors." 

Gerard raised an eyebrow as he detected a change in Alexander's voice. His son locked eyes with him. 

"Speaking of ancestors, I woke up in a workshop of sorts. I met a woman made of metal saying she was our ancestor. Do you have any idea who that was?" Alexander asked. Gerard's eyes widened, his mouth opened and his heart suddenly ached. His breathing threatened to give way but his will was stronger. He fought off the surprise in his heart and he schooled his features. 

"Can you walk?" He asked suddenly. 

​Hesitantly, Alexander nodded. 

"Come with me, then." He said wordlessly. He turned on his heels, his mind wondering how best to explain that which all of the heads of his family feared. Their paths turned back into familiar grounds as they entered his study. 

"Sit down," he said to Alexander. To Adeline, his lips went thin. "Make sure no one enters this room." 

The maid nodded, standing sentinel before the door. Gerard closed the door behind them and made his way to the fireplace. As he did so, Alexander wiped away at his nose. 

"What's with all the cloak and dagger?" Alexander asked, noting his father's strange behaviour. 

"You know that our family has kept details of our semblance all through the ages," he began. 

Alexander nodded. 

"Do you know why each one of us was warned not to push past our limits, son?" Gerard asked carefully. 

"Aura break, officially. But unofficially?" Alexander asked carefully. 

Gerard turned around, meeting his son eye to eye. "That's because we quite literally get sent to that place you woke up in. It is a problem because when our aura breaks, our soul is quite literally pushed to its limits. Some of our ancestors died, others simply did not return. The ones that did come back were changed." 

"Changed?" Alexander clarified. 

Gerard nodded. "Yes. Your grandfather was one such people. He acted atypically compared to the men of his day. He became distant, pouring his energy in other things." Such tings had been laudable, such as his dedication to Faunus freedom. But it came at the cost of becoming distant to his family and quite literally working himself to death. 

"Then...why am I here? I still feel the same," Alexander said, glancing at his body. 

"You had the advantage of medical equipment keeping your body stable, I feel." Gerard theorized. Alexander had at least the foresight or common sense to have those two close to him. 

"I feel like a warning to not do that would have been prudent..." Alexander paused.

"There already were warnings. The one you met was simply kept away as a family secret." Gerard explained. "You were eventually going to find the truth of it once it was your turn to be the head of the family." 

"Why was it kept secret? Why...how was that woman our ancestor?" Alexander pressed, curiosity burning in his eyes. 

"It was kept secret for safety purposes, son." Gerard explained again, opting to be direct. "As I said, those that went the mile did not return, were changed, or died. Meeting the Blacksmith, our ancestor, does not have any negative consequences to it. The changed Waylands returned with increased knowledge, better understand of their semblances." 

It was not a coincidence that those changed Waylands had introduced revolutionary technology and prized artifacts that were both in the halls of Emperors or in a hoard of bandit lords. 

"As for our ancestor..." Gerard again took the moment to consider how to put it in words but decided on directness. "With each man, there is his father. For our ancestor Wayland, it was Vadi. He recorded that he had awoken in a different realm, that of gods, and he had met a lady of metal who taught him how to smith. To create things from nothing using his aura. But because he was human, he was limited by his aura. Sometimes, he would become exhausted and that lady of metal would tend to him."

"Allow me to interject," Alexander spoke up. "He and that lady got close and fell in love?" 

Gerard nodded. "Yes. The Blacksmith frequently tending to Vadi turned into something else. They made love and Wayland was born. From there, our Semblance was forged into our bloodline." 

​Alexander went quiet at this revelation. 

"Our ancestor fucked a god. And from that union, it essentially sealed into our bloodline the ability to create." 

Gerard went to a table and poured for himself and his son a glass of wine. He turned to Alexander and offered him the glass. 

"Essentially, yes." Gerard nodded. His son accepted the offered glass and drank it all in one go. 

"We have divine blood in our veins," he stated blankly. "And our ancestor had such insane charisma, a god fell for him." 

"Mhm," Gerard affirmed. 

"I mean...how? She was made of metal," Alexander muttered.

"Life, uh, finds a way," Gerard coughed awkwardly. 

"Now that I know about this and the Blacksmith herself told me how to get back to her, I am going to go and try and meet her frequently." Alexander declared. 

"Absolutely not!" Gerard thundered. "Look at you! Your eyes a bloodshot and you passed out! And what purpose would even have to meet the Blacksmith?" He paused. "You...you aren't planning to sleep with our progenitor are you?" 

Horror broke out on Alexander's face. "What? No! What the fuck dad!" He yelled, horrified. He took a breath. "I have questions for her. Questions for us, our world. Everything. I want to know if what I forged will get us somewhere." 

"What were they?" Gerard asked, curious. He had been wondering about the spherical machine and that plate of starlight. 

"Well, the chestplate is made from a metal called mithril. It is light as a feather and stronger than all metals known to Remnant. It has properties to it that can protect one better from aura based attacks. I intend to make myself a nice suit of armour from that. As for the machine..." he paused to let his words sink in. "It is a device called the Slipspace Engine. It will open wormholes allowing us to travel faster than light." 

​"Faster than light?" Gerard said, surprised. No one in their family ever thought of space travel before. For Alexander to breach into serious space travel meant his ambitions far surpassed even his own. He already knew about the satellite project, he was the CEO after all, and he had signed up on it. But actual space travel....

"Humanity cannot stay in its cradle forever. Surely, there are other places where there are no Grimm and we all can grow without being stopped. There is much potential in space, planets where we all can grow freely and mining asteroids for their precious metals. I imagine our society will vastly benefit from that."

Normally such talk would be impossible but Gerard knew that with their semblance, it was possible. However, such a massive undertaking would require resources that even their company didn't have. Plus there remained the problem of Dust not exactly working in space. But he was sure his son had means to circumvent that. 

"You were supposed to supervise our expansion in Mantle, you know?" He stressed. Alexander smiled cheekily. 

"Well, I figured that with things going well, I could do my side projects I had been setting aside," His son explained. "I feel that with out semblance, we can push the limits, father. Per aspera ad astra."

​

"What?" Gerard blinked, not understanding what he had said last. 

"Through hardships, to the stars." Alexander quoted. "We have been planning our satellite program. Why stop there?" 

"I will have to think on this. If you wish to undertake this, this will take a monumental amount of money, you know." Gerard surmised, thinking already about who to talk to about this. There was one he figured he could speak with regarding investment into a space company and she was looking for ways to clean the ruined image of her family. 

"I am surprised, father. I thought you were going to tell me to stop or something," Alexander blinked. 

"I admit, such things sound impossible but we both can do it. We are blacksmiths, creators. It is in our blood to forge and to create," Gerard said. 

"Dad..." Alexander whispered. 

"You are still not allowed to see the Blacksmith, however." Gerard said. 

​Alexander's expression broke. "But I have questions!" 

"And they will remain unanswered. The process to see her is far too dangerous," Gerard shook his head. He was not going to allow his own son to risk himself. 

"But...what if I found a way to speak with her without risking myself?" Alexander asked. 

​Gerard thought about it. "If you can find a means to do so...very well. But until then, you are forbidden from seeing her." 

"Understood," Alexander promised. 

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A/N: Updoot.

Sorry again for silence. Grief fucked me up. I am better now though. Here's an updoot with developments.