So I'm back from the dead (probably) and here to give you another chapter in my story.
Review Q&A Time
Guest: yo that's cool you should also wait till the new battlefield dlc coming out that focuses on Russia-Your right, I shouldn't post this chapter and wait until that dlc comes out.
TheMightyMorgeth: I'm really enjoying this story and nice reference to Band of Brothers with Sun. Also, I honestly expected the Atlesian Soldiers to have a more Imperial German design to their uniforms, but oh well. Uh not entirely sure why you expected that, seeing as how they are based off of the british/american side, and the Imperials are based off the Germans. I like to think in my head the uniforms are like Valkyria Chronicles military, maybe not as flashy, but a bit more fantasy like...I don't know.
(Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY)
The Soldier's Battleground
ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド
Chapter IX: Little Red Riding Hood
A little girl no older than seven or eight years old, slowly sat up in her bed and tried rubbing the sleep from her eyes to clear up her bleary vision, when this was unsuccessful, she decided to do the natural thing and go back to bed. Well at least she tried too, until a certain someone started poking her right cheek.
"Come on sleepy head it's time for breakfast."
The little girl groaned and tried to bury her head under the extremely fluffy and utterly comfortable pillow. She felt the person above her stop poking her cheek, and lean in closer to her as she could feel their warm breath hitting her ear.
"Guess I'll just eat all the chocolate chip cookies by myself then."
No one within a five mile radius shot up out of a bed quicker than the little girl after she heard her favorite food. Of course doing so had its consequences as she made contact with the person leaning above her.
"Argh! What the heck Ruby!" The person above her grabbed their nose in pain.
Ruby looked over at her older sister as she rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry Yang! I didn't mean to hurt you! So I heard you mention cookies!"
"I was just kidding Ruby, I only said that to get you up. What are you doing Ruby?" The older sister took a cautious step backwards at the scary expression on her younger sister's face.
"Ehehehe, you dare use such an underhanded method again to get me up? You'll pay for that!" Ruby lunged at Yang with a scream.
According to their father, this was around the time Yang started to truly appreciate her hair and let absolutely no one touch it. But that horrific event can be told at another time.
Ruby Rose was born into a rather normal family, she had two loving parents, an older sister, and a big farmland to grow up on. Unfortunately for those around her, she was anything but normal. From the time she could walk, she was either out exploring the forest in her backyard or brainstorming designs of all shapes and sizes. This lead to living a rather secluded life as she found it hard to interact with children her age due to how smart she was. Even so, that didn't stop her from dreaming of bigger and better things in life.
As time went on and Ruby found herself growing up, a breakthrough, at least to her happened when it was discovered that she had a natural talent for hunting. Her skill with a rifle was so great that she soon became the talk of the town. No prey could escape her grasp once she had them in her sights. Her natural talent with hunting coupled with her imagination, lead to her tinkering with weapon designing and experimenting, and also finding out what job she wanted when she became a fully fledged adult.
Sadly life doesn't always go the way you want it to go. War was declared on her home country and almost every able bodied person in her hometown decided to join up and defend their homeland. Her older sister was not exempt from this spirit of adventure, and she witnessed Yang packing her bags and leaving the cozy farmhouse to go and fight in the frontlines. Wanting nothing more than to her sister and stay by her side, she was too young to enlist in the military, the war would have to wait until she grew old enough.
One day as she was wandering through the town square she saw a crowd of people gathering around a wooden podium and decided to go see what the commotion was about. That day a small sliver of hope would be presented to her as the military was in need of more able bodied people and with the permission of one of her parents she could join the military underage as someone who would serve behind the lines in support.
Taking a deep breath in to help calm her nervousness, she pushed her way through the crowd and soon stood in front of the recruiter looking him straight in the eyes. "I would like to have one of those forms please." The recruiter gave a quick glance at her and raised an eyebrow. "How old are you lass?"
"I turned sixteen a few months ago." The recruiter gazed at her for a few moments before handing her a single piece of paper. "Fill this out and after you get your parents approval bring it back to me and I'll see what I can do."
She smiled at the answer and quickly grabbed the paper and started to write down all the information that needed to be filled out. Unfortunately getting her parents' permission was never going to happen. As they had already sent one of their children off to war, they weren't about to send their other one off as well. She would just have to take matters into her own hands.
That night, after her parents had turned in for the night. Ruby quietly made her way out of her bedroom paper in one hand and a small candle that cast its flickering light against the walls in the other. She carefully made her way downstairs towards were her father small study room was located. He always had some type of documents laying about at one point or another.
For the first time in her life, she forged her father's signature and after seeing that everything on the paper was in order hastily made her way back upstairs to her room and before going to bed, gathered a few of her personal belonging and her notebook of ideas and stored them in a small bag.
She had set her plan in motion. Not knowing that it forever change her life, her parents lives. And arguably, even the war itself. But to the young girl, those thoughts didn't dawn on her that night.
The following morning Ruby woke up with a sense of adventure coursing through her veins and she made her way downstairs to go eat breakfast with her family one last time.
"Good morning dear, did you sleep well?" Her mother gave her a smile as she placed a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her. "Yes mom I did, the food looks great by the way!" She covered up her nervousness by shoving a large mouthful of eggs into her mouth.
"Ruby when you're done, do you mind heading out and checking out the northern field's fence line? It's been awhile since I checked that area out."
She nodded her head at her father's request as it would give her a good excuse to be out of the house. A few minutes later, she finished her food and quickly stood up to go and put her plate in the sink. Heading upstairs she grabbed her bag from underneath her bed and went back downstairs to the front door.
"I'm heading out!" She yelled in the direction of the dining room.
"I love you both, I'm sorry." Ruby whispered under her breath and closed the door behind her. An immense amount of guilt welled up inside of her at her deception, but she shook it away as she was doing this to help Yang. Hopefully one day her parents would forgive her. But today would not be that day.
Ruby replayed the memory of when she had run away from home. But was brought out of her reminiscing when someone tapped her shoulder.
"Hey Rose what's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" She shifted her gaze over to the other young woman beside her. "Ah nothing much, just thinking back a few months ago and how I lived in a warm home with great food and a comfy bed to sleep in."
A snort was her reply. "Please, what's not to like about the conditions we're living in. We have moldy food to fill our bellies and a cold room with rotten cots to sleep in. Life is paradise here." Ruby playfully shoved her friend's shoulder at the response.
"Shut up Crescent, you know what I mean."
"I do actually, but if I'm supposed to peel all these damn potatoes by sundown then I need to have some fun in the process."
Ruby had meet Crescent back when she had gone through basic training, the two of them had become allies in order to help get through the grueling training. After they had graduated, the two of them got stationed together and over time became friends. Despite the dreariness of the war that surrounded Ruby, she had Crescent to help her through it.
"I'm also having to peel the potatoes as well and you don't hear me complaining now do you?"
"There is some irony in what where doing right now, don't you think. I joined the military to get away from being a cook and find excitement, and you joined to get away from farming. And look at what where doing! Give me back my sense of adventure!" Crescent wailed dramatically much to the amusement of Ruby. The two of them shared a laugh and continued to peel the mountain of potatoes piled beside them.
"Sooo, about that date." This time it was Ruby who snorted. "You and your jokes."
Crescent smirked. "Who says I'm joking?" Ruby raised an eyebrow at the answer. "I don't swing that way." Crescent leaned closer with a gleam in her eyes. "How would you know that if you've never even had a boyfriend?" She leaned even closer to Ruby who found herself trying to mentally process the question. "C-Crescent I don't think this is such a good idea." Her friend smiled as their face's got extremely close to each other. After a few moments of them staring each other in the eyes, her friend bust out in laughter.
"Bwahaha, you should see the look on your face right now! Hahaha!" Ruby raised an eyebrow at her friend holding their side in laughter. Before she could comment a young man stumbled into the room with fear plastered on his face.
"The Imperials have broken through our frontlines, we need to get out of here!" He yelled frantically at the two of them. As if to confirm what he just said the sounds of sirens started to blare an alarm. "Let's go!" The three of them scrambled out of the room and as they made their way outside the sounds of gunfire could be heard growing closer to their position.
"Grab what supplies you can, and get them loaded onto the trucks, let's move it people!" An officer waved his pistol in the air and tried to maintain control of the chaos that was unraveling in front of him. "Hurry up, we don't have much time!"
A warbling sound was heard in the sky momentarily before a nearby building found itself missing a portion of its side.
"They've got us zeroed! We need to get out of here!" A random soldier yelled in panic and dropped the box in his arms before running away in terror. More warbling sounds pierced the air and soon the area around Ruby was lite up in death and destruction.
"Come on Rose we need to go!" She felt her right hand being grabbed by her friend.
Another enemy shell exploded near them and destroyed a group of parked trucks. Seeing their main mode of transportation go up in flames. The two of them decided that running was the best course of action.
Bullet's now started to whizz by them as the retreating Atlesian forces started to catch up to the two running figures. Even though they had escaped the opening carnage, fate was not completely on their side as a lone bullet struck the back of Crescent who screamed out in pain from the wound and stumbled to the ground.
"Crescent!" Ruby scrambled to her friend's side and helped her up. "You'll be alright, there's a barn up ahead were we can get you patched up." Her friend gave a pained grunt. "Rose there isn't enough time to stop, you need to keep going."
"Shut up! I won't leave you, come on were almost there!" Ruby helped her wounded friend the rest of the distance and carefully laid her down in a pile of hay. "Stay here, I'll go find something to stop the bleeding." She turned and started to quickly search through the barn to see what she could find.
'Come on there has to be something that can work! Aha! That blanket will work perfect.' Ruby ran over to a blanket that was lying in a corner next to some farm tools. Seeing that the blanket was too big and needed to be cut in order to make a bandage. She grabbed the first sharp farm tool she could find which was a scythe and started to hack at the blanket, easily cutting a strip off.
She grabbed the newly cut piece of blanket and made her way back towards her friend.
"I found a blanket!" Ruby's excitement immediately died when she saw how much blood her best friend had already lost.
'No, no, no, no!' Ruby felt the bile rise in her throat and she violently puked from the disturbing scene. Spitting out the vile taste she hastily made her way over and knelled down next her wounded friend. After a few moments she stood up and with tears falling from her eyes, she surveyed her bandage job.
"The bandages helped stopped the bleeding, but you need medical attention as soon as possible, we need to keep moving."
Crescent let out a pained groan. "I can't Ruby, let me catch my breath first."Ruby noticed her breathing was haggard and sweat was dripping from her forehead.
The sound of footsteps behind them made Ruby turn around to see an Imperial soldier entering the barn. She looked around for something to defend herself and her gaze landed on the farm tool laying a few feet away. With a gaze of determination she dashed over to the simple tool and picked it up. Moving quickly while she had the advantage, she closed in on the enemy soldier and threw the scythe. A sickening squelch could be heard as the blade embedded itself into the Imperials chest. Her aim had been true. A scream behind her made her look behind to see Crescent getting stabbed by another Imperial soldier who must have come in from the other side of the barn.
"Get away from her you bastard!"
Her vision went red with hatred, rage was the only thing going through her mind as she charged at the surprised enemy soldier. Before they could react, she swung the scythe across their chest making blood spray out from the cut. But she was not done with her revenge. She raised the farm tool and swung again, cutting another large wound into the soldier.
A scream born from the pain and sorrow filled her throat as she continued to slash the now dead Imperial soldier. Blood sprayed everywhere blurring her vision but that didn't stop her from slashing the corpse a few more times. With blood dripping from the ends of her hair she stood up from the corpse and looked over to a horrified looking Crescent. Ruby looked down at her bloody hands and finally noticed how badly they were shaking.
"I-I killed a person. What have I done?" Her thoughts where all jumbled up at the act she just committed.
"Ruby you did what had to be done, you saved my life."
Ruby looked at Crescent with a scared expression. "But I brutally killed him."
Crescent held her hand over her right arm were she had been stabbed. "We can talk about it later. Come on we need to get out of here before more show up."
Even though the shock was still flowing through her, she knew her friend was right and she carefully picked up her wounded friend. "Y-yeah let's go."
As the war would carry on, the young country farm girl would lose a part of her child like innocence in order to cope with the horrors.
(Months Later)
After the horrifying events that she witnessed a few months ago, Ruby pleaded with her superiors to be able to fight on the frontlines. After showing her skill with a rifle, the decision was made. While she could fight on the frontlines, it would still be in a supportive role of a sniper. On a normal basis, if wanted to become a sniper they would have to go through special training, but seeing as time was of essence and replacement soldiers being needed. Ruby was literally given a rifle, a scope and some ammo before being sent up the line.
It didn't take long for rumors to circulate of a sniper who's accuracy was so uncanny that they could shot a bullet through an enemy snipers scope. Alongside that rumor was how the person had killed dozens of soldiers with a scythe when the enemy got to close. At first Ruby tried to dispel the rumors, but over time she just accepted that rumors would always be present and she decided to focus on her job.
Still her skills had caught the eye of the higher ups and soon enough she was asked if she would be willing to test out a new rifle and its ammo, specifically an anti-material one. Unsurprisingly, when she agreed and subsequently used the penetrating power of the new rounds to take out machine gun crews her fame grew once more including her being promoted to the rank of sergeant. One that didn't go unnoticed by a certain coffee loving person.
But even a sniper needs to maintain their equipment and one day Ruby found herself wandering the town behind friendly lines in order to find a gunsmith that had been recommended by a few colleges of her's. Now only if she find the blasted shop she would be golden and could rest her arms from carrying the heavy rifle.
"Aha there it is! The Melodic Cudgel, wonder how it got it's name but who cares. I hope its open." She walked up to the store front and reached for the door knob before giving it an experimental turn to see if it was unlocked. Seeing as it was she pushed on the door and poked her head inside to see a young man looking around the store.
"Oh, I guess the shop is open! Great!" She opened the door the rest of the way and stepped inside. 'I should probably introduce myself to him as its the right thing to do...'
"Hello, my name is Sergeant Ruby Rose, it's a pleasure to meet you," she exclaimed with a chipper voice.
The man extended his hand to her. "Lieutenant Jaune Arc, I could say the same to you." She took a step forward and stood near him to shake his hand before starting to rock on the balls of her feet. 'Uh what now? I'm not the greatest with socializing.'
Silence reigned over the room and he began to wonder if he should try and start a conversation to fill the silence.
'Oh I know the perfect thing to break the ice!' Ruby turned and started to unzip her weapon case.
"So, I have this thing!" She pulled out a rifle that was almost as tall as she was.
"Is that an anti-material rifle?" The man responded with curious tone in his voice to her awesome weapon.
"Yes, it is! Well it's a bit modified by yours truly, but its purpose is still the same. I call her Crescent Rose." Her voice had taken on an ecstatic tone.
"I read about it once, but I've never seen one until now." He looked at the rifle with a curious face.
'Haha I did it! I can socialize just fine!' Ruby smiled, "So what weapon do you have?"
"I use the standard issue equipment, but I do have a knife that's a family heirloom," She noticed him pull out something from his satchel at his side and show it off to her.
'It's a cool looking knife, but not as cool as my baby.'
"Ah a classic, it's nice to know someone likes to use the classics." She tilted her head as she appraised the rather simple weapon. As Jaune watched the young woman look at the knife he felt a tap on his shoulder. His gaze turned to a young woman who was even shorter than Miss Rose. The young woman motioned to both of the weapons and pointed towards the shop's counter.
"Are you the weapons smith?" The so far quite woman shook her head side to side.
Ruby took note of the rather one-sided conversation the man and the silent woman was having, or wasn't having to be more precise.
"Do you know who the owner of this store is so we can…?"
His question was cut short as a man's voice was heard coming from the back.
"Neo! Where are you? I already told you we don't have enough money to buy ice cream so you better have not gotten any!" A man walked out of the back of the store and paused for a second seeing the three-people standing in the room.
"Oh customers, I'm sorry I didn't hear you come in. The names Roman Torchwick, how can I help you?" The man gestured towards Jaune and Ruby.
"My knife is just in need of some cleaning and sharpening is all." Jaune handed his knife over to the man. Roman grabbed the weapon and looked at the blade with a critical eye before handing it back to Jaune.
"Hmm shouldn't be a problem, I can have it done for you in about an hour or so. What about you Red? What's wrong with your weapon?" Ruby fidgeted under Roman's gaze.
"Actually, I was wondering if you sell maintenance parts for weapons, I just need a few to tune up my weapon."
Roman nodded. "Indeed, we do, Neo please show the young lady to the back for me will you." The short woman nodded before gesturing to Ruby to follow her. She hefted the rifle onto her shoulder and followed the other short woman to the back of the store. 'How will I talk with her if she doesn't speak?' Her thoughts ended when she saw how well the back of the store was actually stocked with parts. "Oh wow this is great!" Ruby set her rifle down and started to rummage through the different parts in search of what she was looking for.
'I need to find a tube that is long enough to run alongside the rifle I'm modifying, some metal parts as well as some tools.' Ruby spent the next minute under the watchful eye of the silent woman as she found and picked up parts she was looking for. She wrapped the materials up in a bundle after the silent woman saw what she picked. They both headed back up front. When she saw the store owner she decided a compliment was in order.
"I must admit I'm surprised you carry all of the parts that I needed, it's a nice change of pace!" Ruby was waving one of her hands around while the other one had a bundle of material in it.
"Please, I pride myself in taking care of my customers, if either of you are need of a custom weapon or anything please stop by here and I'm sure I can handle it." Roman finished his sentence with a flourish and tipped the hat that was on his head. Neo did something similar but it was more of a polite bow.
After paying for things she bought, Ruby and Jaune left the store together and found themselves outside. Jaune turned towards the young woman. "You feeling hungry? I'm coming back here in a few hours, so I might as well eat something as I wait."
Ruby smiled politely at him. "I think that's a great idea, but I have to meet up with my older sister, so I'll have to turn down your offer." She offered an apologetic smile. Jaune waved his hand at her reply.
"You're all good, I hope you get Crescent Rose repaired, I'm glad I to have meet you Miss Rose." Ruby and Jaune shook hands before parting ways.
As Ruby saw the young officer walking away from her she smiled before walking in the opposite direction.
(A few weeks later)
"Sergeant Rose!" Someone yelling out her name made Ruby pause in chatting with her friend Crescent. "Ah yes I'm Sergeant Rose, what do you need?"
"Some higher up wants you to report to him as soon as possible, there is something they wants to talk to you about I presume." Ruby mentally sighed as she bid her friend farewell and followed the soldier back to the rear. While it did take awhile for the two of them to get all the way to the rear, they finally reached their destination.
"They're waiting inside for you Sergeant Rose." She turned to the young man. "Thank you private, I'll take it from here."
Taking a deep breath to help calm her nerves, Ruby raised her hand and firmly knocked on the wooden door.
"Please come in." A male's voice could be heard coming from the other side, when she opened the door the first person her gaze landed on was an older woman which by her rank put her as a Captain. Another older man was also in the room and was the voice she heard coming in. His rank was that of a Major.
"Sergeant Rose reporting as ordered." She popped a quick salute to the officers who returned it quickly.
"Yes Sergeant we've been expecting you, I am Major Ozpin, and this is my second in command Captain Goodwitch." The man paused to take a sip from the coffee cup in his hand before continuing. "I must say Sergeant you have made quite the stir to some of the higher ups, going from a cook to a deadly sniper is quite the jump in job occupations." A look from the Captain made the Major clear his throat. "Well there is no benefit in beating around the issue. Sergeant Rose it has come to my attention that you received an experimental anti-material rifle and have been testing it on the battlefield, how do you feel about testing more equipment similar to that?"
Ruby pondered the question for a moment before giving her answer to the officer. "So far sir I feel that the weapon is adequate in what it was designed for, and as for testing more equipment, if that is what is required of me then I will do it."
"Hmm I see." He set the coffee cup down and folded his hands together. "Sergeant Rose, considering you have now fought on the frontlines for awhile now, with the addition of the machine gun and tanks, you must have noticed how warfare has been evolving, I would like for you to consider transferring into a squad that will be a part of a new type of soldier.
Major Ozpin's gaze narrowed a fraction. "If this prospect interests you I can elaborate more on what this job entitles."
Thanks for reading this chapter, if some parts do seem confusing, I apologize as I tried my best to get the ideas in my head into a readable chapter. I wanted to get a little bit of back story to Ruby as the idea popped in my head a few days ago.
It also came to my attention that the way I ended the last chapter was a bit cheesy. I have a tendency to use cheesy and corny lines in my writing sometimes so you'll just have to deal with it.
