(Halo x RWBY) Remnants of the Reclaimers

A Negative One Star Stay

-John 117-

-Northern Mistrelian Wilderness-

The heavily armed band pushed through the blizzard that had risen up moderately suddenly, some with more enthusiasm than others.

Qrow, Oz, Ruby, Ren, and Blake were freezing, their auras not enough to protect them from the harsh wind and cold, and despite the massive load of arms, armor, and ammo, nobody thought to bring a coat. The three Spartans, on the other hand, seemed unsurprisingly less concerned with the cold and were laser focused on pushing on and watching for Grimm that they hardly took notice of the other's suffering.

Qrow eventually dropped back to John, who was serving as a rear guard, and tried to appeal to him, "Look kid, I know you feel we need to keep going, but not all of us can get through this weather without a bottle of bourbon. Face it, we need to get shelter or we're going to have a few fewer in our little tea party."

John checked the map in his head of the nearest few miles and remembered a village a little to the west, so he nodded at Qrow and said to Fred (the one currently leading the column), "People need a break, we're stopping at this next upcoming village." He placed a waypoint and he saw Fred readjust trajectory and Kelly make sure everyone was following on the new course before going back to surveying.

They arrived at the village (really just a collection of a few farmhouses) a little before 1 am, and everyone was exhausted. Unsurprisingly, no lights were on in the village, but no matter how much knocking anyone did no lights came on, no doors were answered, and generally no signs of life were given. Shoulders were collectively shrugged and they simply broke into the largest house. (Kelly was disappointed when a window was left unlocked, she had wanted to use her shotgun to blast the lock off the door)

Everyone barely made it in the door before collapsing on the large couch or other cushioned seats, and the Spartans barely had time to set a watch amongst themselves before everyone except Fred zonked out.

-Kelly-087-

A few hours later, John shook Kelly awake and she tapped herself on the side of her helmet a few times to try to shake the sleep fog from her head. It didn't quite dissipate and it took a good bit longer than usual to do so. Right as John laid down to go to sleep, Kelly was seized with a sudden panic and grabbed his shoulder before he could fall asleep.

She could tell he was staring blankly at her as she stood up with a sudden urgency, "We forgot to check the house,"

John didn't seem to process this for a second, then jerked awake and softly exclaimed, "What were we thinking!"

Kelly stepped over sleeping bodies to get to the stairs while remarking, "Not much apparently,"

John periodically checked the rest of the ground floor before moving to the basement, and saw nothing but a standard low tech kitchen and storage space when suddenly Kelly's acknowledgement light beeped rapidly and he rushed upstairs as she remarked, "Oh this is very bad," seemingly to herself. Despite taking no measures to move quietly, John did not wake anyone up in his mad dash to the room Kelly was currently inspecting.

Upon arrival, the gruesome scene splayed out before the two Spartans as a man and woman lay in the master bed mid-decomposition, though with an absence of the usual creeps, crawlies, and critters, likely due to the cold. There was a sudden and sharp intake of breath from John mirroring Kelly's earlier reaction.

Kelly turned to John unsure, "Do we wake the others?"

John thought for a minute, "I don't think so, there doesn't seem to be any immediate threat, so let's just look for info, and we'll figure it all out when people get up in the morning."