Lunchtime used to be one of her favorite things... now it was just a period of time where she had no say in whether her "friends" sat beside or near her or not. It was annoying, but they didn't really interact with her much then anyways, nor did they notice when she'd leave early the past few months. She'd seen other students take to-go trays before heading outside of the cafeteria, so she had that thought on her mind. A couple nice locations to eat came to mind, there was the courtyard, the trees up there were always really pretty... there was also Ozpin's and Glynda' offices that she could now visit at her leisure, which was strange being that not two days ago being sent to either location usually would mean someone was in trouble or something was wrong. Now as a member of Spec Ops it was just another place she could visit whenever she pleased so long as it didn't arouse suspicion.
She ignored the usual chaos around her as she entered, making a B-line straight for the noticeably short lunch line. When it finally came her turn to pick her food, she opted with something lighter than usual. Three strawberries, a single chocolate chip cookie, a side of rice, broccoli, cod, and a glass of water. It wasn't a particularly large dish, but it had everything she needed, and that was enough for her. After exiting the line, she saw her... teammates, and their sister team JNPR wreaking havoc on their area of the lunch room. Although thanks to that she found it easy to find a table completely vacated in the ensuing chaos. With a low sigh, she lowered herself down to eat alone at the vacant lunch table.
It was solitary, spartan, and admittedly at times she did feel lonely like this, but it was for the better. They didn't want her in their lives, and she didn't need them in hers, either. So she ate in silence, chowing down as quickly as possible before downing her glass of water. The cold clear liquid went down her throat with a soothing sensation, but she dismissed it as she turned in her tray, utensils and plates, and grabbed a water bottle to go before making her way for the door.
Or at least that was the plan she intended to go with. A stray sausage link whipping her in the face and splattering grease over in eyes was not in that plan. It didn't help that it was completely out of left field and she had no chance to raise her aura before it hit, meaning that sure enough, there was warm sausage grease in her eyes now. It wasn't the worst pain she'd ever had, nor was it the worst hit she'd taken that she hadn't seen coming, but by dust that didn't mean it didn't hurt.
"ACK!" Ruby yelped as she staggered back, clutching her right hand over her eyes. Acting on reflex, she popped the cap off her bottle and poured some water over her sleeve, before vigorously rubbing the wet cloth over her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She wasn't sure just who the hell had thrown or whipped that chain of sausages about so damn carelessly, but she'd be damned if she didn't even the score!
"Oh, geez! Sorry about that Ruby, I didn't see you there!" It was Blake's voice. Of fuckin course Blake was whipping it around like a fucking idiot. As she held herself up and continued rubbing her eyes out, she eventually lifted her face from her sleeve to note that she'd mostly cleaned her face and eyes out. The latter still stung like a bitch, and look at her scroll's reversed camera showed her that her eyes looked plenty irritated, but she'd done all she could and would just have to ride it out. Looking back, she saw that her so called "friends" had mostly halted their impromptu food war and Blake had approached and was about to put a hand on her shoulder. "Honestly, Ruby, you need to look where you're go-"
Before she could finish her condescending remarks, her face met a fist with a surprising amount of force, making Blake stagger back clutching her nose. Ruby stood upright and held her head high as Blake quickly recovered, before watching the cat shake her head furiously and give her a mighty mean glare.
"What the hell was that for?!." She screeched at Ruby, though the girl merely made an about face, pacing towards the door while answering her question, not even bothering to look in Blake's direction as she addressed her.
"We're even now. Bye." Ruby answered with a low growl before walking out the door, not wanting to get caught up in whatever madness her team was no doubt pedaling today...
"What the hell?... That kind of behavior is... not Ruby... what is going on?" Blake wondered after Ruby shut the door, leaving the room dead silent. She understood that she probably could've worded that a lot better, but Ruby just punched her. She never quite thought that Ruby was capable of just lashing out like that, but she guessed her assumptions were wrong in that regard... still, did she really deserve a punch to the face? She felt as though it was kinda a poor trade.
Of course, that wasn't the only bit of oddness she'd seen from Ruby as of late. Her developing physique, for example. She said she'd been going to the gym, but when did she have the time away from her team to do that without their noticing? They did almost everything as a team, so she really just couldn't see how it was possible... not only that, but she was more standoffish now, more... confident? Her stride wasn't impeded by nervousness or a second guess behind her actions like it used to, like all the doubt had been left in the dust.
She shook the thought off, before shrugging her shoulders at her friends and rejoining them. She'd make a note to talk with Ruby later, but for now, she'd at least like to try to resume the fun she'd been having with Yang, Weiss and JNPR...
Ruby was thankful that her eyes had stopped stinging before her new 7th hour with Glynda. After her 6th hour, she got a text from the Vice Headmistress detailing to meet her at the Spec Ops landing pads in full kit, which she of course did with about two minutes to spare. The Spec Ops landing pads were built within the cliff face facing away from the city, near the cliff she'd been launched off of for her Beacon Initiation, and was overall slightly larger than the normal landing pads. Every pad was taken up by a sort of VTOL of unknown design, though the common theme was in their color scheme of mostly black across the board...
"Ah, Ruby, glad you could make it in time." Glynda beckoned her over to one of the VTOLs on the far right of the hangar, her attire slightly confusing Ruby. By all means, her kit looked very similar to Ruby's own, with only slight differences in the physical design in all her equipment, minus a helmet which she forwent in favor of a black and dark gray sleek headset with a mic, all in the same color pattern aside from her eye pro that just had straightforward black light-adaptive lenses. Most telling difference was that Glynda's balaclava had a realistic skull design weaved in the fabric, and she used a completely different kind of select-fire rifle. It was more compact than her own, with a shorter 14.5 inch barrel, more retractable stock that she could see held the buffer spring for the bolt, and the changing handle was located to the rear. It had an ACOG topside, ahead of it a canted blue dot sight, on the underside of the barrel was a grenade launcher, left side a flashlight, and right side a blue and green double laser. On her right hip she had a compact PDW not too different than her own minus a suppressor, and her left hip a combat knife Her combat shirt had a hood that she'd pulled back, and she wore a shemagh not too different from her own around her neck. She wore the same kind of gloves Ruby did.
"Wouldn't dream of being late, Glynda." Ruby answered with a nod, before looking at the other three members of Spec Ops present...
"This our new 5?" The first was a girl not much larger than herself with similar proportions, who wore a black and dark gray operator cap with the Spec Ops insignia proudly displayed, a headset with a mic, and eye pro similar to Glynda's own. She wore a skull balaclava like Glynda, and a similar Shemagh, although her combat shirt did not have a hood, and it was short-sleeved. Her kit looked to be overall lighter, and on her person she had a grenade launcher, pistol, and pump-action shotgun with a foldable stock. The grenade launcher was single cylinder, brake action, and had a flip up glass reflex sight. The handgun had green trijicon glow sights, and her shotgun had a green dot holographic sight. She too wore the same gloves, and her kit was finished off with a lighter looking plate carrier that had rows of shotgun shells and 40mm grenades along the abdomen and an IFAK and tourniquet pouch, and a kukri attached over the left breast that she could yank out if shit got too close. Finally, she had a satchel thrown over her shoulder and tightened to stay in place by her side that was just brimming with explosives, and her belt was lined with more 40mm grenades.
"Bit on the smaller end, innit?" The next one with a strange accent inquired, and his appearance was by far the most unlike her own and his build about the same size as the previous ones if more masculine on account of being male. He still wore the skull balaclava and black shemagh like everyone else, but he wore a sort of ghillie suit over his shoulders, arms, back and over his head as a hood in OCP. The rest of his kit was practically identical to her own plate carrier wise. He wore a black beanie over his balaclava, and wore a headset and eye pro like everyone else on the team besides herself. He held a large rifle, high caliber, a sort of rectangular scope up top, floating barrel, bipod, and a pretty heavy duty looking muzzle brake, all shrouded in a camouflage cover. On his hip he had a simple handgun with blue trijicon glow sights, and a combat knife.
"Da... Still, size only matters if ja got a big gun, neh?" The third chirped in, his form more resembling a bear than even Yatsuhashi. He wore more heavy armor than anyone she thinks she'd ever seen, and he carried a truly massive gun. A single, long 24.8 inch barrel leading back to a boxy design that she noted was side-loaded, ejected to the right, and it had a bulky fixed stock. The gas port connecting below the barrel ran back, and the barrel shroud covered both that port and the barrel just up before the end where it was interrupted by a bipod, and ahead of that a sort of adjustable knob. A big cylindrical drum fed into the weapon, which she could now see actually held a belt of ammunition. The machine gun's top propped open, which made sense given the belt-fed design, and the top had rails which allowed for the placement of a holographic sight, and a laser further down the barrel on the left side. He still wore the same skull balaclava and black shemagh, same gloves, but his armor was radically different. It looked like an EOD suit, but it had hard, rounded shoulder pads that seemed to be new gen plate, and the big collar had similar plating around the base. Additionally, it had similarly plated gauntlets, greaves, and tassets. Guarding the groin was a large soft armor crotch pad that also shielded some of his inner thighs, and he had a lot of equipment on his person. He had a similarly large handgun on his hip, that she could very clearly see chambered in .50 AE, and had green trijicon glow slights. He had a large tube on his back that she immediately picked out to be some sort of missile launcher, and a satchel resting on his left side absolutely brimming with ordinance. The only reason that she could tell he wore the skull balaclava was because the black ballistic visor was lifted up.
"Ruby, welcome to your squad. You're already familiar with myself, however, introductions are in order for everyone else." Glynda put out in an easy tone, nonchalantly gesturing towards each of her new squadmates with an open palm...
"Alison Harper, Metal 4. I'm the squad's forward assault, breaching, CQC and demolitions specialist. I love blowing shit up and getting up close and personal with my enemies... I also like doing hair, getting my nails done, and going out on the town with friends in no particular order." The other female shook her hand after taking one off her shotgun, giving Ruby a quick nod as she did so.
"Jason Reeves, love. Metal 3. I'm the squad's infiltration expert and master sharpshooter. I've heard you're good... don't worry, I'm better, and I got the service record to prove it. We'll have to get tea or some odd somewhere down the line, eh guv?" The sniper with an accent introduced himself with a playful jab, before nodding to the big bruiser in the room.
"Artyom Nikolaevich. Metal 2. Da, am Heavy weapons and ordinance master, and driver of squad. Я люблю большие пушки, больших женщин и мой грузовик без определенного порядка!" The massive man, Artyom introduced himself with his deep voice and a rumbling laugh while shaking her hand after shouldering his machinegun.
"Well, guess it's my turn now, right?" Ruby laughed somewhat nervously while scratching the back of her neck. "My name is Ruby Rose, I don't quite know what role in the squad I'll be filling yet, but outside of hand-to-hand I'm pretty capable in all areas... except handling whatever weapon class yours would fall into, Artyom. I like reading, training, eating sweets, strawberries, nerding out over weapons, and, uh... I don't like being the center of attention."
The whole room went silent for a moment, making her believe that she must've said something dumb for a moment before all four other occupants of the hangar burst out in hearty laughter, Artyom even slapping his knee as he bellowed his deep laughter.
"N-no need for worrying about THAT here, Ruby!" Glynda laughed, wiping a tear out of her eye as she started to stand upright again. "After all, our operations are top secret! If ANY of us become the center of attention here, we're doing something very wrong." She gave Ruby a pat on the shoulder and a quick nod, before pulling out a new balaclava and skull patch for the girl...
"What's this?"
"THIS is a trademark for our squad specifically within Spec Ops. Every squad has one, and this is ours. Metal Squad. Complete your first squad mission, and you'll earn these." Glynda gave her a thumbs up, before gesturing to the same skull patch on every member's right shoulder. Upon closer inspection, it was a sort of screaming skull, with a knife piercing down through the top and out below the jaw, all encompassed by an upside-down triangle that was open and wiggled like a lightning bolt on the left side of the bottom corner. "I am the squad leader, in the field for OPSEC, you'll refer to us as our designated codenames. Mine is Metal Actual."
"And since 2, 3 and 4 are already taken, that means I must be Metal 5, right?" Ruby surmised, receiving a nod from all present.
"That's right. Alright, now that you've been introduced with everyone, I'll inform you of your role in this squad. Yours is meant as more of a supplementary tactical role. A jack of all trades. Essentially, I need you to be second best at everything. You're already solid in most departments, but you need to sharpen your CQC skills, and get stronger so you can handle heavy weapons... Don't worry, unlike your team, we actually plan to help you develop all the skills you'll need... including as squad leader should I go down in combat or am unavailable." Glynda explained, before stepping forward and waving her arm around to gesture to all present, including herself. "This is your family now, and we must have our strongest bonds here. Protect the house... Welcome to the family, Metal 5... you're one of us now, our youngest sister, and just like how we expect you to do for us, we all stand ready to fight and die for you."
Ruby couldn't help but start breaking up a little bit at the declaration, though quickly wiped her tears and looked back up at Glynda with big, hopeful eyes. The older lady just gave her a soft smile, before hardening her expression and looking up towards the rest of the squad. "Now, We'll be departing for a field exercise in a few minutes. Check your gear, check each others', and ready up."
It all happened so fast, boarding a VTOL and rocketing out towards the horizon at a lightning pace. Everyone had synched up their channels, confirmed good connection, and pulled over all their gear for facial concealment. They slowed over a clearing, the vehicle popping smoke before the ropes descended. Without hesitation, all five members hooked up and repelled down into the smoke. Bullets were flying all around, explosions cracking the earth around them.
A 500 meter course. There was trenches, lookout towers, barbed wire, walls, mortars, machineguns firing their way... It was like they were just deployed on a battlefield, with a single red flag at the very end and all the chaos one would expect of a warzone. She could see what looked like a tracked IFV further down the course, and their targets were Atlesian Knights... all of which were were shooting at them...
"MOVE THE FUCK UP AND RETURN FIRE!" Glynda roared over the gunfire, waving her arm overhead in a circular motion to signal for them to follow. Rushing forward, falling in on her squad lead's right back just a few paces and returning fire with precise bursts into distant enemy ranks. The thundering roar of the firefight made making out any commands without their closed channel difficult, and the constant rocking explosions from the mortars was nothing short of disorienting, but they all made it to the first trench line. Glynda held up four fingers, then raised a thumb as well, closed her hand to a knife-hand, and sent it forward.
Nodding, she rushed forward, noting Metal 4 rush ahead from Glynda's left, both of them tossing grenades ahead of them into the trenches, hopping down into them just after they blew. Snapping right, she put a bullet through five knights' heads in two seconds while throwing herself against the wall to make herself somewhat less exposed. The constant booming of a shotgun and the slamming of a metal body against the dirt accompanied by the sound of metal tearing through metal told her all she needed to know that her rear was clear. Pushing forward, she silently took note of Artyom dropping into the trench behind her with a heavy THUD!, taking quick, aggressive movements forward. They first needed to clear this trench so that they wouldn't be caught in a crossfire later, then they could proceed.
Coming up on a dugout in the trench, she pulled the pin and tossed a grenade inside the room, waiting for it to blow before dropping herself in and moving right while scanning the room, firing on the few knights that were maimed but still able to shoot. Artyom dropped in right after her moving left while scanning the room. The room was cleared of it's two remaining combatants in mere moments, and they repeated the action at a lightning pace across several more dugouts in the trench before coming topside and bracing themselves against the wall. Looking over her left shoulder, she saw a lookout tower with a machinegun not too far away firing down on Glynda and Metal 3. With a low growl, she readied and tossed another grenade over the trench, landing at one of the four legs of the tower. Sure enough, with one leg blown out and many of the supports between critically damaged, the tower toppled over, and she was careful as she popped over and popped a round in the Knight's head.
"Metal 2, machinegun on the hill! 3 and 4 are fucking pinned down by that gun and sniper fire, lay down some fucking cover fire on those shooters! 5, get the fuck up there, I want a grenade in that MG nest fucking yesterday!" Glynda came in over their channel, and both snapped into action. Artyom gave her a simple nod, before giving her a hand as she scaled over the trench wall before mounting up his big gun on it's bipod and squeezing down the trigger in 1 second bursts over her head. As she got closer, Ruby threw herself to the floor and closed the dust cover, before low-crawling up through the chaos, around the points she'd seen the mortars strike, under whole ass rows of barbed wire and through mud-filled tubes in the earth. As soon as she came up, she made a 20 meter sprint up to the base of the nest and threw herself on her side.
Pulling out a pulse grenade, she primed it and yeeted it over, blasting all knights with the electromagnetic pulse and trying all of them as she rushed up and threw herself inside at a crouch. Creeping up to the corner, she tossed a flashbang around the corner to her left and swept her right lane, cutting down two knights as she did so. Snapping back to her left, she shot three more in the head before looking back to the nest she was previously inside. With a devilish smirk, she rushed into it and yanked the MG off it's stand, bracing it against the ground as she swung it around and let rip into the lookout towers that the snipers were in. The .50 BMG rounds tore through the towers like paper, and even if she had fairly little accuracy with the bullet placement, she could at least direct the direction they were going, which was all she needed to clear the way.
After throwing the gun aside, she raised her hand overhead and gave an OK hand gesture, watching as a single bullet struck the adjacent MG nest on the other side of the trench line and blew up an ammo box, causing a chain reaction and blowing up the entire nest. Quickly doing what she could, Ruby scanned her sectors in the trench until her squad closed the gap, and allowed her to look forward again...
"IFV ON THE HILL, 2 BLOW THAT FUCKER UP!"
"Da, is dead!" The massive man roared in confirmation, slinging out his missile launcher, lining up the shot and blasting the IFV with a 88mm Missile in the fuselage and consuming the vehicle in a ball of flames. Stowing the launcher back on his back after reloading, he slinked back into cover as a few mortar shells struck near their location. Rushing up past him, 3 grabbed her shoulder and shoved her around, passing her and gesturing for her to follow. The two quickly scaled the trench and raced around the outskirts of the trench line, ducking down into the brush, slowly and methodically low-crawling around obstacles in their path and coming up on the next line's blind spot with unobstructed lines of sight.
"Take out those mortars so we can fucking advance!" 4 ordered, and Ruby just shared a nod with 3. Both took up good, solid prone firing positions, and began picking off their targets in unison. Metal 3 would use his heavier caliber rifle to target and detonate munitions while Ruby picked off individual mortar crewmen. In short order, they'd cracked the defensive wide open, and the squad began pouring through the breach, swiftly and efficiently securing the line in a hail of gunfire, explosions and raw, unadulterated aggression.
Sliding down her little hill, 3 remained behind to make the most of his good firing position, while Ruby made haste back to Glynda as she beckoned her to come over. Crouching behind Metal Actual, she ducked low as bullets zipped uncomfortable close overhead, and looked the woman up and down. She was covered head to toe in soot and mud, though a brief once-over of herself and everyone else showed the same deal was present on all ends...
"We need to bust that last fuckin fortification, how do you wanna fuckin handle this shit?!" She asked, and Ruby took a shard of glass up from off the floor, wiped the dirt off it, and used the reflective surface to get a good look at the enemy line without exposing herself...
"Three MGs, solid cement, open, unobstructed path besides mud... 4, Actual, ready on right lane! Hope you remember your fuckin IMTs! 2, lay fire on right gun, 3 far left, I'll suppress mid! Metal Actual, Metal 4, move on command!" Ruby ordered into the channel, with everyone immediately snapping into action. Sure enough, the volume of fire lowered considerably on the right tower, and she watched how every time a new gunner appeared on the far left, 3 would instantly kill it before it could even get a shot off. Nodding to herself, she popped over cover and switched to full auto, laying down suppressive bursts on the center MG just ahead of her. With the volume of incoming fire, she couldn't make the most accurate shots, but she could suppress just fine, which was all she needed. "GO! FUCKING GO, GO, GO!"
Glynda rushed forward first, making small bursts of fire before posting 20 meters into the last 100, dropping prone and firing down on the enemy. 4 rushed forward, past Actual another 20 meters, before posting and going prone, firing away on the enemy positions with her grenade launcher. As soon as she was posted, Glynda snapped up to her feet and sprinted up the next 20 past Alison again, posting, going prone and returning fire once again, picking up again just as Alison made the 80 meter mark. With a determined grit, Glynda rushed up to the base of the cement battlements, and Alison followed as soon as she made it.
Metal 4 planted an adhesive plastic explosive on the wall, moved off to the sides, detonated the charge, and pressed in through the breach alongside Metal Actual. In short order, the center MG pillbox was blown out by an anti-armor mine, clearing Ruby for her next action.
"Metal 2, cease assault on right MG, move through the breach, I'll suppress Right!" She ordered, moving her sights onto right lane and continuing to lay down suppressive fire as the massive bruiser Artyom vaulted over his cover and rushed through fire and smoke, shoulder-first through the breach. Within seconds of him barreling through, the rattling of his MG filled the air once again...
"5, this is 4! I've got Right pillbox covered, you're clear to move through the breach!"
"Roger, Metal 5 moving!" Ruby replied, before rolling out of her cover and making a mad dash for the breach, clearing the distance and throwing herself into cover. In the center was the flagpole, proudly waving that flag so red. Between them and victory was a whole Battalion of Atlesian Knights, and a few automated turrets...
"I'll reassume command. 2, brake right, draw their fire away from us! 3 advance into the breach and assume a new firing position. 4, I want grenades down range now! 5, pop smoke, switch to thermals!" Glynda ordered, everyone springing into action as they were called. The rolling smokescreen clouded both sides' line of sight, allowing for Ruby and Glynda to switch to thermal vision in peace and return fire, more precisely this time since their concealment made them harder for the droids to lock onto, never mind actually hit. Metal 2 had rushed out from his cover before that, strafing right across the area and firing from the hip while ushering out a mighty battle cry to help in drawing attention to himself.
The booming of explosive ordinance racking the field ahead of them was nearly deafening, as Metal 4 had pulled herself on top of one of the pillboxes for a better view and started bombarding the enemy positions. Despite being a single cylinder, the rate of fire that 4 was outputting could easily deceive anyone who didn't know, and through her thermal vision she watched as mechanical bodies were flung about and reduced to shreds under the firestorm. Further back, she witnessed a singular white streak race through the gray and lance straight through the heads of at least four knights, before being deflected off some sort of surface and take five more, deflecting again... and again... and again until the white-hot lance lost the last of it's driving force, burying itself into one last knight's chest. The droid staggered back a moment, before falling forward on it's knees, and crumpling to the floor...
"Jesus Christ! He just took out a whole platoon of knights with a single shot!" Ruby thought in awe as she continued to fire away on what droids were still in a position to fire on them. She thought that she herself was an incredible sniper, but what she just witnessed was very... humbling. Casting a glance right, her amazement only continued to swell as she witnessed a telling feat of 2's sheer strength. Previously, she thought Yang, Yatsu and Nora to have the most physical strength of anyone she'd ever met, but even their collective strength and durability paled in comparison to Artyom. Here he was, taking fire from almost the entire battalion of droids, almost every shot finding it's mark, including that of anti-armor weaponry, and it all did practically nothing to the massive man as he proceeded to lift a 30 ton IFV overhead, and throw it at the battalion of machines. It fell to the earth with a mighty crash, rolling and splintering apart as it barreled through several columns of knights.
She'd witnessed Yang throw 2 ton trucks around with a bit of effort before, and she knew that both Nora and Yatsuhashi weren't far behind or ahead, but Artyom was just on a completely different level. Not only did it look easier for him, but he threw it farther, faster, harder...
"See why he's the tank of the squad?!." Glynda yelled over at her in a joking tone, before popping off a few more shots and destroying a few more droids...
"Break in the ranks, we can take the flag!" Ruby called out as she saw the formations of the knights fall apart. The battalion wasn't completely wiped out yet, in fact most still stood, but sure enough, there was an opening. Looking over to Metal Actual, the woman just gave her a brisk, approving nod. A signal to move up and take the objective. That's when she realized, this operation... they didn't need to wipe out every droid to win. They just needed to take the flag. That's all they ever needed to do.
With a quick nod, Ruby vaulted over her cover and raced towards the flag, careful not to use her semblance to give herself away. Finally, arriving at the flagpole after wading through the firestorm, she took a look at the knot... "NO!" Ruby thought as she realized a knot like this was not something anyone could undo in a timely manner. With an aggressive growl and a stubborn refusal to give up now, she readied her rifle, and put a few rounds through the rope.
She smiled to herself as it did the trick, reaching out and grasping the rope before the wind could carry the flag away. Dropping her rifle and letting her sling hold it in place, she ducked down as a volume of gunfire began riddling her position, slowly but surely pulling the flag in as she crawled away from the flagpole and back towards her squad. Her sixth sense for danger kicked in as she was crawling back, and a glance back only filled her with horror as she beheld a grenade thrown land not even a meter from her...
*KABOOM!*
She had braced herself for a heavy blow, tucking her head in to protect it, but all she felt was a passing wave of diminished concussive force. Looking up, she saw Artyom had put himself and a heavy steel door between her and the explosive. He gave her a quick nod, before giving her a light kick to make her move. ruby regarded him with a simple nod, before sprinting back to friendly lines, yeeting herself over a chunk of debris and getting caught by her lead...
"Objective secured, returning to LZ for extraction." Glynda ordered into the mic, and all present immediately began falling back. Just in time as well, as another battalion of knights had marched up to reinforce the line with the capture of their precious flag. "Fall back! Don't let anything slow you, 5, you got a straight shot, GO!"
Ruby was the first out the breach with the flag in hands, followed by Actual, 4, 3 and 2 last. Her objective was clear, get to the LZ no matter what, and don't let anything delay her. Leaping over the first trench, she bobbed and weaved through obstacles that barred her path as efficiently as she could, before bounding up and over the next trench, landing on her front just before the barbed wire and immediately began crawling under, through another one of the pipes, through the next layers of barbed wire.
Finally, she picked herself up out the end, threw herself into the last trench between them and the LZ, and popped back up, rifle at the ready. She'd already laid the flag over her shoulder, and the pickup site wasn't far now, but she'd be damned if she left her squad behind. Since she was the furthest ahead by at least two trenches, she needed to cover the rest of Metal Squad's retreat. So, with conviction in her actions, Ruby began firing away on the pursuing battalion of droids, taking some fire off her squad with precision bursts of fire, each bullet dropping another knight. These were ideal circumstances for her to shoot, so she had no problems in laying down effective sniper fire for her squad.
As if to acknowledge her efforts, her squad redoubled their efforts to get back, with 4 ceasing return fire and turning around out of her backpedaling, coming into a full sprint for the finish. Ruby watched her dive under the barbed wire and begin to crawl, and by the time she was halfway through, Glynda dived down as well with 3 only a few paces behind. 2 was still backpedaling and somewhat far behind, but he was also holding up the rear. The importance of his task could not be understated, though once 3 finally dropped into the trench alongside Glynda, he too turned out of his backpedal and began barreling down the field.
Like everyone else, he dove under the wire after taking his launcher off his back, so it wouldn't get caught, and began crawling through, pushing it ahead of him through the tunnel, and emerging topside not long after, rejoining them in the last trench. As soon as he was up and firing again, Glynda popped a canister of red smoke over their initial drop site, and they waited for their bird...
Five minutes... five minutes of trading fire with the enemy. Ruby wouldn't admit it, but those five minutes were the longest five of her life, each one felt like an hour. Nevertheless, their bird had arrived, and after making a fighting retreat in formation they boarded their flight, and were in the sky. She was glad she'd worn armor, because through sheer attrition, her aura had broken during their five minute defense as the droids retook the defensive lines. Her body armor had saved her from five different shots, and her helmet had saved her from two. She'd have to repair her equipment, but better having to repair gear than to be dead or admitted into the hospital for bullet wounds.
However, she did notice that the knights ceased fire as soon as they were a few dozen meters in the air, something she wasn't expecting...
"Why did they stop firing on us..?" Ruby asked herself aloud, receiving a nudge to the side from her squad lead in turn.
"Because this is just an exercise, not the real deal. Repairs will be made by others at a later date to the course." She answered, receiving a perplexed look from Ruby.
"If this was only a field exercise, why use live ammo? What if one of us were critically injured or killed?" Ruby questioned, drawing a somewhat somber look from her new leader.
"This was a raid exercise, and the use of live ammunition is to ensure everyone takes it seriously... that, and if one of us are killed during a training exercise, then they aren't strong enough to be one of us. Your gear saved you from at least three would-be fatal shots. It's clearly effective, so repair your gear once you get back, we have a handful of workbenches to do such. Also, work on your evasion skills so you won't get hit as much in the future." Glynda ended with praise before turning to Alison. "Your aura did not break today, but I saw at least two bullets hit your head in a spot and way that would've killed you had your aura been broken and you not wearing a helmet. For raids I want you to start wearing a helmet as well."
"Any criticisms for me, Glynda?" Jason spoke up, receiving a simple nod.
"I saw you take a potshot while we were repelling, and miss. As the squad sniper, that is unacceptable. Go to the shooting range later, and ensure that does not happen again." She ordered sternly, making the man sigh in exasperation.
"Ah, blimey... that's what I git for tryna look cool..."
"And Artyom... yes, you're the tank of the group but uh... try to avoid incoming fire from anti-armor weaponry. Your armor is incredibly tough and can take a pounding that most hunters couldn't even dream of having enough aura to weather, but it does slow you down and is vulnerable to weapons designed to counter such tough armor."
"бля ... ладно, понял." Artyom answered with a defeated sigh, before turning his head to Ruby and giving her a thumbs. "Not bad for first run. в конце концов вы его получите."
"I really didn't understand most of that but I kinda did at the same time... thanks." She sheepishly replied, before looking to the rest of the squad. This exercise was chaotic and dangerous, but they worked well together, all things considered. A team like this didn't operate like a Hunter team, there wasn't any need for specially named team attacks like there was in a Hunter team... no, no that was unnecessary here. The only absolutely necessary things in the operation of this team was their bond, ones understanding and proficiency in their role and in the skills they had to share, and their ability to work together... but she did have one question, above all else. "...so, this squad obviously isn't new. What happened to the previous Metal 5?"
Her question was met with silence, as everyone present just kind of cast their gazes to their feet. Everyone held pained expressions on their faces, their emotional high from the recent firefight instantly extinguished, which told Ruby all she needed to know...
"I'm sorry, that was-"
"No, no, it's fine... too soon, is all. It's too soon, not today." Alison answered for the group, none of them arguing with the remark. "Understand that you're filling shoes the rest of us would rather leave unfilled."
"This squad has a long history, Ruby. I was only 20 when I joined Spec Ops, and I'm the only one from my original squad still alive... every one of us has watched our brothers and sisters die in battle before. That pain is nothing new to us, but that doesn't mean it hurts any less, after all, we call each other brother and sister for good reason." Glynda continued, looking her in the eye for a moment before sighing and looking away.
"Miss- I mean... Glynda, is something wrong?" Ruby asked. She could tell by her expression that there was more to this. Maybe it was related to the previous 5, maybe it wasn't... but this new expression she got after looking into her eyes was definitely related to her.
"... you aren't the first Rose I've worked with, Ruby." She said plainly with a new, glassy look in her eyes. Ruby's own widened as the realization dawned upon her, and she deflated in her seat. "No... far from it. Crimson Rose was my squad leader when I first joined, and his daughter replaced our 4 some years later... her name was Summer Rose."