Before you read this chapter, I want to know if you would like the next chapter to be Neo, Ilia and Ruby having some "Alone Time." Let me know.


Vulture and Vernal watched from a distance, as the new recruits were put through their initial tests. There were other tribe members to handle the first stage of training, but Raven always liked to have people overseeing everything. Vernal agreed to handle it, and Vulture joined her because she was the only "bird" not on a mission. The recruits were split up into a number of groups, but there was one group that was of particular interest to the two women. The group consisted of the Malachite Twins, the four former diplomats, five teenagers, and a bird faunus with a beak as her animal feature.

"How the hell did we end up with a group like that?" Vernal asked.

Vulture shrugged.

"Well, I'm curious to see how they handle the training bots." Vernal said.

Vulture nodded in agreement.

"I wonder if those kids have any combat experience." Vernal commented.

Vulture nodded, she was also curious about that.

"Looks like their about to start, I hope they know what they're doing." Vernal said.


Down on the training floor, the mismatched group was being briefed by their instructor. "All you have to do, is beat two bots as quickly as possible." the instructor told them. "Any questions?" he then asked.

"Yeah, don't you think it's unfair for us to have to fight them?" Jaune asked, as he gestured to his three friends.

The instructor laughed "It's unfair, but that means nothing. You need to know how to fight while injured." he said.

"What happened to you?" Cherry asked.

"We had to fight the Eagle, Falcon, Hawk and Owl. All of us got stabbed and cut up." Jaune answered.

"Why did you have to fight them? That's like a death sentence." Cherry asked.

"It was that, or execution. So we agreed to fight them." Jaune explained.

"How the hell are you still alive?" Cherry asked.

Jaune sighed "They went easy on us." he said.

"Alright, enough talking. Jaune, you're up." the instructor ordered.


Jaune approached the bots. He had left his own weapon back on Mistral, so he was using a sword provided by the tribe. As soon as they were alerted to his presence, the bots aimed their weapons at him and opened fire. He was forced to jump to the side, in order to dodge the stun rounds.

Jaune new that he needed to get closer to the bots. It would make him easier to hit, but he needed to be closer in order to attack. So, he charged at the closest bot, swing his sword at it's body. The bot couldn't move in time, and the blade sliced into it's side. Since it was designed and programmed to be like a human, the bot dropped to it's knees.

Jaune was going to finish the bot off, when he remembered it wasn't his only opponent. He jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a barrage from the second bot. He continued to dance out of the way of the shots, until the bot had to reload. With an opportunity to strike, Jaune charged the bot and drove his sword through it's chest.

With one bot down, Jaune turned to finish the other one. He was relieved to find it already defeated. A human would have bled out from the injury Jaune inflicted, and the programming simulated that. He was surprised by how easily he had won, having never previously fought firearm wielding opponents. "How did I do that?" he wondered out loud.

"You did pretty well kid, we'll make a killer of you yet." the instructor commented.

Jaune didn't want to be a killer, but he stayed quiet about it. He just nodded to the instructor, before rejoining the group.


Once Jaune's bots were replaced, it was Pyrrha's turn to fight. She didn't have her own weapon either, so she was given a replacement. Having trained with bots before, she was more prepared than Jaune had been. However, she had never had to face firearms and wasn't sure how to best deal with them. She immediately had to combat roll to dodge the first volley from the bots, they had opened up on her as soon as they noticed her.

Quickly returning to her feet, she ran and jumped at the first bot. She impaled it through the head, having put all of her force behind the strike. The bot went down instantly, with Pyrrha riding it to the ground. The moment they hit the floor, Pyrrha removed her weapon and went into another combat roll. She narrowly dodged several shots from the remaining bot.

Rather than approaching the second bot, she threw her sword straight at it. The weapon flew straight, before burying itself in the bot's chest. Pyrrha then ran up to the bot, she reached it just as it hit the ground. To ensure it wouldn't get up again, she pulled her sword from it's chest and drove it through the bot's head.

She was unable to stop a smile forming on her face, she was pleased with how the fight went. Other than having to dodge projectiles, she had been able to handle the bots like she did when training with them in the past.

"That was quite impressive, but I'd advise against throwing your weapon in future. If you miss or they catch it, you're screwed." the instructor told her.

Pyrrha nodded "Thank you, I will keep that in mind." she responded. The only reason she threw her weapon, was because she was incredibly accurate. Though she was starting to realize, that she shouldn't be overconfident in her abilities. She had believed she was good at hand to hand combat, but had been completely trounced by Eagle.


Nora was next to go up against the bots. She had been given a warhammer to fight with, as that was her preferred type of weapon. She would have struggled immensely, if she had to fight with a sword. So, she was glad to have a weapon that she could wield effectively. Still, she was inexperienced when it came to combating firearm wielding opponents.

She dodged to the side when they first started firing on her, then she started to run around them. She was able run faster than they could turn to fire on her, which resulted in them draining their ammo without landing any hits. As soon as it stopped firing, Nora attacked the nearest bot. She swung the hammer around to build up speed, before slamming it into the bot's side.

The first bot collapsed to the ground, from the force of the hit. But Nora stayed on her feet, and continued to swing the hammer around. Her weapon slammed into the second bot's hand, shattering it's weapon and smashing it's hand into oblivion. Nora then stopped spinning the weapon, instead lifting it over her head. With all her strength, she brought the hammer down on the unarmed bot's head.

Having caved in the head of one of the bot's, Nora went back to the first bot. It was still on the ground, but was starting to move again. So, she replicated her previous actions, lifting the hammer above her head and bringing it down on the bot. The hammer slammed into the bot's chest, putting a stop to its movements. Smiling at her success, Nora rested her weapon on he shoulder before walking away.

"Damn, you're dangerous with that thing." the instructor said.

Nora nodded "Yeah, it's so much better than a sword." she responded. She would have fared better in her fight against Falcon, if she had been allowed to use a hammer. Though she would probably still have lost, since Falcon would have put more effort into fighting her.


After Nora, it was Ren's turn to fight. Unlike his friends, he was given guns to fight with. He had two sully automatic pistols, which were similar to the weapons he had been forced to leave on Mistral. He was confident in his ability to deal with the bots, all he needed to do was land a few good shots on them and not get hit himself. He rolled out of the way, when the bots initially opened fire on him.

He was quickly back up and running, firing as he tried to outflank his opponents. The first bot, had its body riddled by Ren's rounds. It immediately stopped firing, and dropped to the ground. A human would have been dead before they hit the ground, and the bot replicated that perfectly thanks to it's programming. Unfortunately, Ren had burned through his ammo on the first bot, and needed to reload.

He continued running, in order to dodge the shots from the remaining bot. While he was on the move, Ren ejected his empty clips. However, he couldn't reload while running, so she went into a roll. He slammed the new clips into the pistols, before returning to his feet and firing on the bot. The first few round, caught the bot in the head. Just like the other bot, this one dropped to the ground.

Ren lowered his weapons, and made his way back to the group. He maintained a stoic expression, as he left the defeated bots behind.

"That was some good shooting, but those things burn ammo too quickly for my liking." the instructor said.

Ren nodded "I don't usually fire that much, I wouldn't have to if I had my own weapons." he responded. The blades on his personal weapons, meant that he didn't have to rely purely on shooting. He hoped that he would get them back one day.

"I'm sure we'll be able to recover all of your weapons at some point." the instructor replied.


Militia was next to face the bots. She had her claws and was used to fighting similar opponents, so she was well prepared for the fight. Rather than diving or rolling out of the way like her predecessors had, Militia was able to dance around the incoming fire. She reached the bots with very little effort, slicing their hands off with her claws.

With their weapons on the floor and their hands missing, the bots were rendered almost completely defenseless against Militia's attacks. She spun around on the spot, slicing into both of them. Her razor sharp claws met little resistance, as the tore through the bodies of her opponents. To finish the bots off, Militia lifted her arms slightly and decapitated them.

With the exception of Melanie and the instructor, everyone was staring at her in amazement. The bots were pushovers in her opinion, but the others certainly didn't see them in that way. She found if funny how challenging they thought the bots were, as she had taken on far more challenging opponents in her time as a mercenary.

"You did about as well as I expected." the instructor told her.

"It wasn't exactly challenging." she responded.

The instructor shrugged "Yeah, but everyone has to go through the same thing." he said.


Melanie went after her sister. She had her heels and had the same experience as Militia, so she was well prepared for the fight. Like her sister, she was able to dance around the bullets. Once she reached the bots, she did a handstand, and kicked the weapons out of the bots' hands. With the bots disarmed, Melanie could attack without worrying about getting shot.

Like an upside down version of her sister, she started to spin around between the bots. Her razor sharp claws met little resistance, quickly cut the bots to ribbons. After finishing with their bodies, Melanie stood up. To add some more flair to her attack, she jumped and did a spin kick which decapitated both bots.

As they had with Militia, everyone stared at Melanie in amazement. She felt that they were massively overreacting, since the bots were nothing more than a warm up to her. She could hardly believe that the tribe had even accepted the other members of the group, since they were clearly so much weaker than herself and Militia were.

"Honestly, I don't know why they made the two of you do that." the instructor said.

"It's probably some idiotic attempt at getting back at us." she responded.

"Did you piss someone off?" the instructor asked.

"Ask Falcon." she told him, before returning to her sister's side.


Cherry, Lila, Sol, Luna, Almaz and Clay fought the bots after Melanie. They all struggled more than there predecessors, but each one of them managed to win in the end. Once they were all back together, the instructor said "Well, you all made it through your combat evaluations. So you'll get all the necessary training and the you'll get put in combat roles." He paused momentarily, the added "Unless any of you want to be pilots or you want a ship based position." before giving the group an opportunity to state their interest in other roles.

"What are the ship based positions?" Jaune asked, hoping to avoid a combat role.

"Ships need bridge crew, gunners, engineers, medics, cooks, hangar crew, and that's all I can remember off the top of my head." the instructor replied.

"Oh no, I don't think I could do any of those jobs. I can't even cook." Jaune said.

"Well, it's that or you could be a pilot." the instructor told him.

"I can't fly either." Jaune said.

"In that case, you'll have to have a combat role." the instructor responded.

Jaune sighed "Okay, what combat roles could I have?" he asked.

"You could be a Grunt, which is the most basic level and means you can be called up for anything. You could be Raider, which means boarding ships and stations. You could be an Assassin, which is fairly self explanatory. You could be a Scout, which is also fairly self explanatory. Or you could be a Commando, which is the top level and means you get sent on missions with the Birds." the instructor explained.

"How do you become a Commando?" Cherry asked, as Jaune had a minor panic attack.

"You either go through an insane amounts of training, perform exceptionally in other roles, or get close with someone at the top." he told her.

"Do we get to choose which combat roles we get, or is it based on something else?" Lila asked.

"After you start training, we will look at your strengths and put you in a specific role based on them. Though you can request to go into a specific role, and you'll be put there as long as you can handle the training." the instructor replied.

"How long will it take for us to reach that point?" Luna asked.

"By the end of this week, the decisions will be made. But don't worry if you end up in a role you don't like or can't do, people get moved around all the time. We're more fluid than your average military." the instructor said.


Vernal and Vulture were still watching from a distance. "Huh, didn't expect them all to get through that." Vernal said.

Vulture nodded. She had her own doubts when she first saw the recruits, but they had impressed her.

"One thing's for sure, it's going to be interesting seeing where they end up." Vernal said.

Again, Vulture nodded. She wondered if any of the would end up fighting alongside her or her friends, she was certain that the Malachite Twins would but she was unsure about the others.

"Well, I think we can go now. I'm sure you have your girlfriends are probably back by now." Vernal said.

Vulture was out of the room the instant Vernal finished speaking, it had been too long since she had any alone time with her girlfriends.


The subject of the next chapter, depends purely on the feedback I get.