The next day, Weiss awoke to the sound of knocking on her door.
She didn't want to wake up, the world of sleep was calling her back to slumber.
But she had to, she had been informed that someone would arrive in the morning and would take her to the training boot camp.
Weiss sat up in the bed that was in the room. She opened her eyes and glanced around it. Her room had been furnished and assigned to her when she was spending her three days in Vale. She had a bed in the middle of the room, against the back wall. There was a regular sized flat-screen T.V. on the wall by the foot of her bed. There was a dresser to the right of her bed and a shelf to the left. Her new rapier, Myrtenaster, was propped against the shelf.
She didn't have much in the room, but she was told that she would be able to order things from stores and smugglers and such once she went on jobs and got some percentage of the cut.
Of course, H&H had already claimed the bounty on Weiss and the money had been transferred to their account. Half of the money went to the company itself and the other half had been split evenly between the eight in the operation. Weiss had been included in the take because it was her own bounty that had been claimed. So, everyone who was included in the operation had received 50,000L each.
She would be able to spend her cut on things once she finished the boot camp, which she learned would take a month or two.
Weiss stretched her arms out and swung her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. She was wearing white sweat pants and a blue t-shirt. Usually she would wear a nightgown of some sorts, but that wasn't one of the things that was retrieved in the fire. She walked to the door as another series of knocks sounded.
"Ok, Ok!" Weiss said sleepily. She opened the door to see Ruby standing there. "What time is it?" she asked.
"Well, good morning to you too, Weiss." Ruby said with a grin. She was wearing the usual black cargo pants and a red tank-top.
Weiss rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes, trying not to fall asleep on her feet. "Ugh, yeah, sorry Ruby. Good morning." Weiss said.
"That's better. Now come on, get some regular clothes on and get your sword. You're going to need it at some point during training." Ruby said, her grin turning into a smile.
"Why would I need it during training?" Weiss asked. "Granted, I might be a little rusty, but I'm not rusty enough that I need a whole new training session to get me refreshed."
"As true as that may be, the usual thing that happens when a person uses a sword here, they also have a pistol in their free hand." Ruby said.
"How many other people use swords?" Weiss asked.
Ruby shrugged. "Don't know exactly, but I've seen few. You can ask Blake that question since she also uses one, she may know a few others. Anyway, you might want to take a shower as well, the drill instructors would have a field day with you if you showed up without having the decency to take a shower." Ruby said.
"Really?" Weiss asked.
"Oh yeah, Yang told me stories about her time in the military. If you sometimes didn't look presentable, the instructors would tear you to shreds." Ruby said.
Weiss nodded. "Okay, thanks for the heads up. They sound pretty ruthless." she said.
"Yeah, I think some of them rubbed off of Yang though." Ruby said.
"What makes you say that?" Weiss asked.
"Well," Ruby said while the grin returned. "Sometimes Yang will be asked to assist with the instructors, and some of them say that she scares them."
Weiss tried to think of a Yang that even scares people who are hired to scare people.
"I wouldn't dwell on it too much." Ruby said. "She hardly ever does it."
"Alright." Weiss said. She looked at Ruby and saw that she might have been trying to suppress a smile and was tapping her foot impatiently. "You seem excited, what's going on?" Weiss asked.
Ruby smiled. "I might be starting to fully grasp the fact that you're practically here to stay." she said.
This brought a smile to Weiss' face. "So you are accepting me being here." she said.
"Kinda." Ruby said.
Weiss sighed. "Dolt." she muttered.
Ruby hugged her with a giggle. Weiss was surprised by the sudden embrace and almost shoved Ruby off, but reluctantly accepted the hug. "Now go get a shower and get dressed, I'll wait here." she said as she let go.
"Ok." Weiss said. She walked back inside her room, closing the door behind her, and walked into the connected bathroom that every room had.
After some time, Weiss emerged from her room, wearing a pair of black cargo pants, black tank top, and black combat boots, and her rapier was strapped to her side in its sheath. She saw Ruby leaning against the wall, her eyes closing slightly.
"Tired?" Weiss asked.
Ruby's head shot up and she saw Weiss standing there. She immediately pushed herself off from the wall and looked at Weiss. "Yeah, a little, I'm usually still asleep at this time."
"Are you serious?" Weiss asked. "It's what, eight o'clock?"
Ruby nodded slightly.
"You haven't changed much since college, have you?" Weiss asked.
"In that way, no. In many other ways, yes, I have changed." Ruby said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked.
"All will be explained later, Weiss." Ruby said as she walked down the hallway, leaving Weiss standing there momentarily. She turned back to Weiss, while looking over her shoulder. "Or demonstrated." Ruby said. "Come on." She waved for Weiss to follow.
Weiss wondered what Ruby had meant by what she had said. She then noticed that Ruby wasn't waiting up for her and she jogged until she caught up with her.
"So," Ruby said. "You come up with a code name for yourself yet?" she asked.
"I have had a few ideas so far. But one keeps coming into mind." Weiss said.
"Oh? Do tell." Ruby said.
"It's one that fits well. White." Weiss said.
"White?" Ruby said with a questioning look.
Weiss gave a nod. "I figured since you're Red, Blake is Black, and Yang is Yellow. I thought that I would throw myself into the mix of colors and make myself one as well." she said.
Ruby chuckled slightly. "Yeah, we could be like the four musketeers." she said.
"But instead of using muskets, we're using high powered rifles and explosives." Weiss said.
Ruby gave another small laugh as they turned down another hallway and came to a door leading outside. Ruby pushed open the door and they walked out into the blazing heat of mid-summer.
They walked past a group of mercenaries playing basketball by one of the hangars and began walking down the side of the hangar. When they turned another corner, they saw the boot camp that Weiss would need to attend.
There were at least five short, half circle buildings close to each other. There was an obstacle course that seemed to have obstacle after obstacle. Across from that, there was an outdoor firing range that went out at least eight hundred yards for long range rifles. Branching off from the firing range, was a mock-training course that would simulate a sort of operation that the trainees would need to complete with a good score.
"A lot of this is similar to the SWAT training in Vale. Trust me, you'll do fine. The only difference is that they have drill instructors shouting at the top of their lungs and sometimes firing off blanks, and rarely live rounds. At the SWAT training all we had were lazy officers with megaphones and only one or two instructors actually doing something." Ruby explained.
"Starting to sound a little easy." Weiss said.
"I hope you're right." Ruby said.
"Me too."
Ruby turned to Weiss. "Well this is where we part for now. You heard the commanders a few days ago. I'm not allowed to interfere with your training and this is where it begins. Around two months from now, I'll see you again though. Either that or I'll see you around the base." she said. She then pulled Weiss into another hug. "Try not to get yourself hurt."
"Same to you." Weiss said as she returned the hug, knowing it would be the last one for a while.
Ruby giggled again and pulled out of the hug. She stared at Weiss for a few seconds. "Ya'know, black looks pretty good on you. Even though your code name is now White."
"Quiet, I'm only wearing it because it's the uniform that was given to me." Weiss shot back.
"Alright, whatever you say." Ruby stepped away from Weiss. "Just get this training over with so that you can be in a squad with me and the others." She said as she began to walk away backwards. "Oh! And no matter what the instructors shout or yell at you, don't let them get to you. Stay strong in there." She said. She turned and began walking away. When she was about to turn the corner of the hangar, she gave Weiss a wave. Weiss could have sworn she saw her wink as well.
Weiss walked towards the boot camp with her head held high and her back straight. 'Don't show weakness.' she thought to herself. She went towards the two buildings that had the most voices coming out of them, figuring they were the barracks.
The most voices she heard were coming from the building on the left, all of them being male. Standing outside of that one was a male guard at the door, a clipboard in his hand. And outside the one to the right, there was a female guard with a clipboard in her hands.
She went to the building that had the female guard, when she walked up, she didn't have a second to make a greeting before being asked, "Name?" the woman asked. She was wearing a military green dress shirt and black cargo pants, a pistol strapped to her waist. Her brown hair was in a tight bun and her brown eyes held a look of boredom.
"Uh." Weiss said, she didn't know why she said it, but she did.
"I don't have all day, Miss." the instructor said.
"Weiss Schnee." she said.
The instructor pulled a pen from her bun, which was an odd place to leave it, and checked the clipboard. She checked off Weiss' name and looked to Weiss.
"Call sign?" she asked.
Weiss looked at her confused for a split second.
The instructor sighed. "Code name?" she asked, clearly annoyed.
"White." Weiss said.
The instructor wrote down the code name next to Weiss' real name. "Okay, go on in. Your bunk is marked with your name." she said.
"Thank you." Weiss said. She opened the door and entered the barracks. Inside, there were about seven other girls sitting on bunk-beds or in small folding chairs. They all wore the same thing that she was wearing. There were about a dozen bunk beds against the walls of the barracks.
Their eyes followed Weiss as she walked through, searching for her bunk.
In simple words, it was an awkward situation.
Weiss finally found her bunk, the name 'Schnee' being written on the pillow in black ink on a strip of scotch tape. It was a simple white pillow, thin white sheet on a white cot. Just like all the other bunks in the room. Stacked on a metal frame, with a thin metal ladder on one of the bars of the frame, above her bed was another bed, meaning she might have a bunk-mate.
Curious, Weiss looked up at the pillow on the top bunk. On the pillow, there as a piece of scotch tape with the name 'Caroline' written on it. That confirmed that Weiss would indeed have a bunkmate.
Weiss detached her sheathed rapier from her side and rested it against the bunk. Weiss sat down on the bunk. She looked throughout the room, noticing that there were a few beds that had scotch tape names on the pillows but there were less people than there were names.
Before she could ask anyone else there where the other were, the door opened and another trainee stepped inside. Looking past her, Weiss saw other people outside being questioned of their names.
The woman who just walked in wore the trainee uniform and had a small backpack over her shoulders. She had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. She was about Weiss' height as well. She was well toned and a bit more muscle mass than Weiss had, which suggested she must have been pretty strong. She walked through the barracks, looking at the other pillows trying to find her bunk.
Weiss decided to take a wild guess at this and ask her if she was her bunk mate. "Caroline?" Weiss asked.
The girl looked towards Weiss with a confused look. "Yeah?" she said worryingly.
Weiss gave her a small smile and pointed upwards. "You're above me."
Caroline gave an "Oh." and walked towards Weiss. As she approached, Weiss stood up to greet her. When they were directly in front of each other, Weiss brought out her hand to shake Caroline's hand. Caroline gave a nervous smile and shook Weiss' hand.
"I'm Weiss Schnee."
"Marissa Caroline. Wait, you don't mean Weiss Schnee as in recently assassinated owner of Schnee Gas do you?" Marissa asked.
"That's my past self, yes. But this is my new life." Weiss said, looking around the room.
"Wait, wait, and wait. How do you go from complete owner of wealthiest company in all of Remnant to a known-as-dead mercenary?" Marissa asked.
"That's a story for another time. And it's quite a long one if I may add." Weiss stated.
"Alright." Marissa said as she tossed her backpack up to her bunk. "I won't pressure you. For now." she added.
Marissa climbed up to her bunk and swung her legs over the side.
Weiss sat down on her bunk as well, making sure she didn't hit Marissa's feet, and she watched as the other women walked into the barracks.
After another half-hour, all of the women had settled in and greeted their bunkmates.
Finally, the guard from outside and another man entered the barracks and stood by the door. They got everyone's attention when the man clapped his hands a few times.s
When he did, he glanced at the woman next to him and gave a brief nod.
"Hello everyone." She said. She sounded a little more upbeat than she did outside. "My name is Jane. But from now on, you will address me as only Ma'am. Every sentence that you say to me will begin and end with ma'am. Am I understood?" she asked.
"Ma'am, yes, Ma'am." Everyone, including Weiss, said.
"Excellent." Jane said.
"My name is Syrus." the man said. He had the same military green dress shirt and black cargo pants as Jane had. He had his brown hair cut military style, and his eyes were obscured by black tinted aviators. "You will address me as only Sir. You got that?" he asked.
"Sir, yes, Sir." everyone said.
"Good." Syrus said.
"Now," Jane started. "The thing that we'll be doing today is heading to the armory that is next door and we'll be trying to find what weapon suits you the best and works for you the most. If it's your first time shooting a gun, don't worry, you will have plenty of time to practice your aim and get a feel for your weapons of choice. Understood?"
"Ma'am, yes, Ma'am."
"Okay, let's go." Jane said. She turned towards the door and stepped outside into the blazing heat once more.
Weiss stood from her bunk and Marissa jumped down from hers. Weiss looked throughout the room once more and counted about seventeen other women in the training group.
The large group of women piled out of the barracks and went to the armory that was in the building that was about fifty feet away from the barracks.
Once inside, Weiss gaped at the amount of weaponry that was available. There were racks of weapons on the walls and some were just free standing shelves.
As soon as everyone was inside, people were looking through the weapon racks. "You all have thirty minutes, then we'll bring you out to the range and bring the guys in here to find their weapons. Ladies first." Syrus said.
Weiss didn't know where to start. She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Marissa standing there.
"You going to need some help?" she asked.
"I might." Weiss said. "How much do you know about guns?"
Marissa shrugged. "A little. I used to be in the Vacuo military."
"Then what are you doing in the training here if you already went through military training?" Weiss asked.
"I got discharged five years ago. So I'm a little rusty."
"What did you do there?"
"I was a demolition expert. I always had a thing for explosions." she said with a crazy grin.
"Alright." Weiss said, a little disturbed by the grin. "Well, let's get this over with."
They went over to one weapon rack that had a few long rifles lined up.
Marissa picked up an M40A5 bolt action rifle and handed it to Weiss.
"How you think a sniper would work for you?" Marissa asked.
Weiss looked at the rifle, trying to get an idea of how it worked. She saw the bolt towards the back and brought her hand to it. She flipped the bolt up and back, then locked the bolt in place again and brought the stock to her shoulder. She looked through the scope of the rifle and pulled the trigger, hearing an audible 'click'. She thought it was nice.
But it didn't feel like her style. She handed the rifle back to Marissa and said "No" to it.
"Really? I thought it was a good choice." Marissa commented.
"It's just not me." Weiss said.
"Okay."
They walked over to another rack which had a few belt-few machine guns placed on it. Marissa picked up an M249 SAW and pulled the large back and it snapped back to place when she let go.
She looked at Weiss and their eyes met.
"No." They both said in unison.
After a few more minutes of looking through racks and racks of firearms, they come across a rack that is filled with assault rifles.
Marissa picked up a well known assault rifle, an M16A3, and said "Mine."
Weiss looked through the rack and saw a rifle that really caught her eye. The rifle was currently painted all black which gave it a dangerous look. She picked it up and felt that it had not a lot of weight to it. It had an interesting look to it. The hand guard was slightly rounded. It had an extending stock and had no special attachments.
"It's an ACR." Marissa said. "Adaptive Combat Rifle."
Weiss pressed the stock of the rifle to her shoulder and simulated cocking the rifle. She pulled the trigger and heard the 'click'. She pushed the rifle away from her shoulder and held it.
"I like it." she said. She grabbed a few empty magazines and shoved the in the pockets of her pants. She noticed there were boxes of attachments off to the side with sights, grips and such inside it. Weiss took out the things that would have been most useful. She grabbed a holographic scope and slid it on the top rail system of the rifle. She then took a small fore grip and slid it on the under barrel rail system. She took a strap that was hanging from a rack and attached it to the rifle.
Weiss slung her new rifle over her shoulder and turned to Marissa.
"It suits you." Marissa said.
"Thanks."
"Now we need to find some side arms."
"Alright."
The two walked to a rack that had all types of pistols. One woman who was also at the side arms was holding a large revolver that looked that is she fired it, it would break her wrist.
Weiss looked throughout the rack and pulled one at random. On the side of the pistol, it read "XD9".
She imagined herself using the pistol and her rapier at the same time. She could already begin thinking of a good pattern. Slash, stab, fire, repeat. She grabbed a few empty magazines from the rack that would fit the gun and slipped them into other pockets in her pants.
She took a pistol holster from a rack and wrapped it around her right thigh and placed the pistol in the holster.
"I have everything." she said to Marissa.
Marissa was strapping her own pistol holster on her thigh and slid an M1911 into it.
"Same." she said.
After everyone else had their weaponry, they were brought to the firing range where multiple targets had been set up. There were large sheets of steel that already had bullet holes through them from previous target practices.
There were dozens of boxes of assorted ammunitions.
"Now that you have your weapons, please take the empty magazines that you took for the weapons and load them with the respective ammo that it takes." Jane said.
Weiss didn't know what Ruby was talking about earlier. So far, there was no shouting or screaming and it was going well. Though, it was only the first day.
"Check the side of the rifle, right where you put the magazine in. Usually the ammo type is written there." Marissa said.
Weiss checked the side of her rifle and read the very small printed writing.
"5.56mm/7.62mm" it read.
Weiss looked at Marissa. "Which one's the biggest?"
"The seven point six-two millimeter rounds."
Weiss looked at the multitude of metal boxes. They each had printed yellow writing, identifying the type of ammo that the box contained. She spotted the box that held the type of ammo she needed and that a few others were already beginning to pile around it.
'Must be a widely used type.' Weiss thought. She kneeled down next to the box, took out one of her empty magazines and began to load rounds inside of it.
She noticed Marissa kneeling beside her, loading the same ammo into her magazines.
'Definitely a widely used type.' Weiss thought.
After another few minutes if loading in weapons the bullets into the magazines, everyone took places at the range. Weiss grabbed a pair of protectors that would make it so that her ear drums didn't burst from all the gunfire.
"Today is a day where you simply work on your aim. You won't be tested on your aim just yet. So don't get nervous. Just shoot." Syrus said.
Weiss was standing with Marissa next to her.
Others were already firing their weapons. Even with the ear protectors it was still loud.
Weiss loaded a magazine into her new rifle and cocked it so that a new round would be loaded in the chamber. She flipped the small switch by the trigger from 'Safe' to 'Semi'. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to use a gun, it was quite simple for Weiss.
Weiss took aim at a single metal sheet that was down range. The holographic sight that she had attached to it had a small red crosshair in the center of it.
Weiss held her breath slightly and squeezed the trigger lightly. The rifle went off with a light kick and Weiss heard a loud 'Prang!'
She looked at the sheet of metal and saw a hole right where she had been aiming. She hit it.
'I hit it!?' Weiss thought, actually surprised in herself. She fired a few more rounds at the target, all of them hitting the mark.
"You're a natural at this Weiss." Marissa commented.
"Is that possible?"
Marissa gave a small laugh.
For the next two hours, there was constant gunfire. Sometime after it started, the men walked onto the range as well. Few of them tried flirting with other women. All of them, were denied from what Weiss saw.
Weiss was indeed a natural at this, even when she decided to try her sidearm, her aim was great.
After those two hours, Jane and Syrus shouted for a cease fire. They called everyone to gather around them when the shooting stopped.
"Alright," Jane started. "That's all that we had planned for you today."
"We hope that you got a good feel for your weapons of choice. Tomorrow, they may come into some use. Who knows?" Syrus said.
"So please, head back the barracks and stay in your bunks until tomorrow." Jane said with a sweet smile.
"Dismissed!" Syrus shouted. He and Jane walked away from the firing range, towards the main facility.
Every one of the recruits looked at each other, all with confused looks on their faces.
After a few seconds of standing, people began to file back towards the barracks.
Weiss checked her rifle, seeing if there were any rounds left inside it. There were about ten rounds left in the current magazine. She flipped the switch next to the trigger to 'Safe' and began to walk towards the barracks.
Once inside, they were met with the sight of a delicious looking brunch. There were stacks of pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs and more.
Now this was starting to become very strange. First, the first day of practice is a little over two hours and now they are given perfect looking meal.
Some of the women didn't have the same doubts that Weiss was having and began to dig into the well prepared food.
"Does anyone else not think that this is not in the slightest bit strange?" Marissa asked.
"I have to agree." Weiss said.
"So what. It's free food, I'm going for It." one of the other recruits said, a few others agreeing with her.
Marissa sighed. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." she said. She walked over to the table of food and began to pick pieces of food and placing it onto a plate.
"I guess you're right." Weiss mumbled. She also joined in and began to eat. She didn't eat much though.
After she and everyone had finished, everything went slow. For the rest of the day, Weiss just layed on her bunk, staring at the one in which Marissa was lying in.
She and Marissa would share a conversation at some points, but they were very spread apart and short.
At a point, when it became the early hours of the night, Weiss shut her eyes and fell asleep.
The next morning, she woke to the sound of gunfire.
AN: Chapter 7, complete! I gave you guys another little cliff-hangar there. I hope you liked it! We're getting closer to the true action that this story. For all of those who have submitted an OC, all OC's will be mentioned and have speaking rolls. There are currently two more spots left if you wish to submit an OC as an H&H mercenary.
I would also like to thank you all for getting this story to the point of 100 followers! You guys are all amazing!
Please leave a review and follow or favorite the story if you haven't. Shout out to Shattered Spectre for beta reading. Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next chapter.
And now, a sneak peak.
The mood in the CIC, Combat Information Center, was grim.
The few people who were in there were all focused to one console. Large screens played security camera footage in the background.
Scenes of explosions enveloping H&H mercenaries switched to other mercenaries being executed. On the main screen, it showed the image of a large structure burning. Bullheads that were parked outside on an area of blacktop had become burning empty shells. Bodies were scattered on the blacktop as well.
"Menagerie base, come in." the person sitting at the console said, his voice full of fear he was trying to hide. A broken mug of coffee was off to the side, the liquid dripping down the sides of the console and onto the floor.
The commanders stood back, staring at the images that were of played back security files from just minutes ago. A few of them, even live. Their expressions held a look of disgust and anger.
"Menagerie base, this is Ursa, do you copy?" the person said again.
Another explosion plumed from the blacktop of the base.
"Menagerie base!" the person said, more urgent than before.
A larger explosion went off and the live feed was cut, even the radio channel went to static.
"We've lost eyes and ears, Sir's." said the person at the console.
