Prologue

Invasion: year 4, day 83

The moon was a waning gibbous, still bright, and permanent. From the light the moon gave one could see smoke. Smoke from a fire. A fire burning down buildings. The fire tore down the mighty buildings, both the tall and the small. the battle had been continuous for several days now. Some would say it was bloodier than any ever seen.

Several figures, clothed in rags and hooded cloths jumped over a large pile of debris avoiding the gun fire that chased after them, though not all were lucky as some fell face down dead in the rubble. The figures leaned against the debris and returned fire. Armed with small arms and unconventional weapons the ragged fighters fought on in pure desperation to push back the Atlesian Invaders.

"Bring up the SAW!" the leader shouted. Two men ran up and placed a large weapon on the debris pile aiming it at the Atlesians. They set up the belt fed gun and open fire. Several Atlesian Soldiers were cut down before the rest found cover.

A missile from the Atlesians rear flew over head and landed behind the ragged defenses launching a pair of men into the air.

"Find that Cannon and take it out!" The leader ordered his men. Some went to fulfill his order, but the rest either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him. This battle was a lost cause. One that would grant the Atlesians a foot hold into the rest of the countryside. The ragged fighters fought in desperation for their lives rather than their long-lost cause.

Vibrations in the air came in the form of two large flying machines. These machines had a rotor on the top and one the tail of its main body. The machines hovered for a moment before unleashing a large amount of munitions at the invaders cutting many down. A large and fast bird like machine, somewhat similar to the rotor machine in terms of usage, flew pasted the sky dropping a large metallic egg that exploded on impact with the ground.

For the defenders it looked as if their luck was changed, but a split second later the pair of rotor machines were impacted with missiles from the Atlesians causing both to erupt in balls of fire. The corpse of the machines falling to the ground lying motionless. The bodies of the pilots sit there unmoving as they burn.

Stray bullets spew through the defenders. Impacting the neck, chest, stomach, arms, and head. The Atlesians advanced closer and were not fifty yards away. The ragged leader slumped in the debris. His forces were destroyed. Sixteen days of fighting and not one bit of reinforcements from the main army. No, the only defense of this town was a ragged resistance movement of mechanics, clerks, city employees, and the remaining policemen who stayed behind. A guerilla army. A dead army.

The leader's eyes followed the body of his last surviving subordinate as he fell over dead from a shot to the neck. His body falling before stopping at the bottom of the debris pile. The ragged leader sighed and placed his weapon on the ground. He was the last alive. He didn't move even when the Atlesian Soldiers came over the pile and grabbed him, throwing him down the pile and restraining him on the floor.

Now kneeling, the ragged leader watched as the bodies of his men were simply tossed aside and burned. The legs of the Atlesian Commander were approaching. The ragged leader lifted his head to see a black-haired man. Quite young in his looks but a clear combat veteran. This man was tall. Six foot six. His blue eyes pierced into the soul of the kneeling man, showing absolute authority.

"Captain Neal. You put up a punier defense then I would have thought. Why is that?" The man said. Neal laughed.

"Puny? Last I checked you has thrice the casualties we had." Neal said. The other man glared.

"An incorrect number as most of my men are still alive, while yours are all dead." The man said.

"Be that as it may, you have not the men to take the capital. Your fame precedes you Colonel Ironwood. But even Sacramento won't fall to you." Neal said. Ironwood's glare turned into a devilishly smirk.

"Who said I was taking Sacramento?" Ironwood stated. Neal's eyes widened as Ironwood took his hand cannon and shot Neal square in the head killing the man. "Throw his body with the rest. We march the new Atlesian Paladins to Sacramento, there we'll test the might of Atlas's ingenuity." Ironwood stated. All around him his men cheered. Yes this battle was a hard-won fight, but even this puny Earthling resistance couldn't stop the might of the Atlesian Army.

"Colonel. General Opal wants a word." One of Ironwoods Soldiers informed. Ironwood nodded and moved back the way his men advanced. Along the way he passed the many bodies of both the Atlesian Military and the Earthling Resistance. He would never vocally admit it, but these Earthlings put up more of a fight then he let on. They were a terrifying force to reckon with. He even started to wonder if this interdimensional invasion was worth it.

Entering his command building Ironwood looked upon General Opal's video screen. He looked as If he had news.

"General!" Ironwood saluted to which was returned.

"At ease Colonel. Word from D.C. has come in. the Atlesian Paladin-180 models were a huge success. The Capital of the country is ours. Inform your contingent of this and retreat back to the staging grounds around San Francisco." General Opal said. This order confused Ironwood. For he was glad that the new Combat Paladins worked he saw Sacramento not several miles away. He could launch his initial attack on the city within the week and still get Major Rojo's reinforcements to take the city by months end.

"Sir, while I understand the orders I'm confused as to why we are retreating. The Earthling army is on the run and I'm not a day's walk from the Capitol of this state." Ironwood explained. General Opal gave a dark look.

"While Atlesian forces alongside Mistral, Vacuo, and Vale have done a large amount of damage to the Earth's inhabitants, we are short on manpower. Their planet always had the bigger population. We can't sustain this prolong campaign anymore." General Opal said.

"But the Earthlings will learn of the Dimensional Rift and perfect it themselves. They'll launch an invasion of their own into Remnant. We can't let that happen." Ironwood exclaimed. Again the General's face darkened.

"Which is why we are letting loose the Grimm." Ironwood's eyes widened with shock. "The Grimm will keep the Earthlings busy while we retreat back through the Dimensional Rift in New Zealand. Vale Forces have already retreated. Vacuan forces are currently doing so and Mistral will be next. Atlas will hold the front until we can start our evacuation. First in the Rift, last out." General Opal said.

"The Grimm? Sir is that wise? The Earthlings don't have the necessary means to defend against them." Ironwood said. General Opal shook his head.

"No, they don't. but that's not our problem anymore. retreat your forces at once. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino are already evacuating. Do not be late." General Opal's image then cut leaving Ironwood alone in the room. He looked down at his hands. They were covered in dirt, and blood. This campaign had been going on for four years. The Earthlings put up this fight for a long time. And they could still hold the defenses they had; it was the people of Remnant that were coming close to the losing end. General Opal wasn't wrong that Remnant, due to the Grimm, hadn't managed to spread far enough to enlarge the population like Earth had. Remnant was currently reaching a mark of eleven million in population before this war happened. Earth had close to seven 'billion'.

Ironwood sighed. The Grimm would be an effective way to keep a population in check, however the Earthlings hadn't a clue on how to fight them. They would be slaughtered. He thought the original goal of the Invasion was to destroy all of Earths major science centers and research so they couldn't and wouldn't find out about the Dimensional Rift and attack Remnant. The release of the Grimm would wipe the Earthlings to extinction.

Iron sighed again and walked out of the command room. He found most of his officers, both military and logistical, in the next room.

"Prepare all forces for a withdraw back to San Francisco. Command is releasing the Grimm into Earth. We're pulling back to the Rift and going home." Ironwood said. His men were startled by the revelation but started to comply with his orders. As his men relayed the information Ironwood stared at the sky. A beautiful sunrise was spurring in the horizon. He did envy the Earthlings about this one thing, the sunrises on Remnant were never this pretty.

A/N: This story is an idea I had thought of for quite a while. I thought of different means to execute it, but all seemed inaccurate in consistency or were just bad. Now I believe I found the right way to go about this story. I hope you all find this story satisfactory as a pseudo replacement for Tankery's Ends sequel, at least for now. I hope you enjoy.