"Today is the final test." Williams announced. "You will form up with your partner. Being handed to you are a pair of casualty cards. One is a light injury. This is to be your own and you will have to work around it. The other is a heavy injury. This is for your partner. Your objective is to extract your partner to a point a mile away without them dying. The course is marked with red cones for simplicity. How you do this is up to you. If you think it isn't necessary, you can forgo medical treatment however I can guarantee you that is a bad idea. Keep in mind you will not have access to aura as you are injured so you may not use it to enhance strength or through any semblances. Next to you are dummies to use for trauma care including applying tourniquets and packing wounds, I'm sure your partner will appreciate you not applying a tourniquet to their leg."
This elicited some nervous chuckles and Williams smiled. "Your time starts now." He said, starting the shared stopwatch.
Daniels watched with incredulity as a C-130 was balanced on its rear wheels, so that the nose was in the air and the front wheel was off the ground.
"And you're sure that this is not going to negatively affect it structurally?" He asked the engineer.
"Yes it should be fine." The woman responded.
Daniels just shrugged. Joint Base Contact Island had been progressing well and the airstrip had been extended thanks to them pushing much of the hill that constituted the center of the island into the ocean.
They'd finished surfacing it the other day and had brought in some reactivated Harriers and F/A-18Es. There was even talk about bringing in some downright antiquated A-10s that had been lying around at Davis-Monthan AFB because of their potential use or sale.
The Vale aerodrome wasn't exactly designed for fixed wing aviation so some Army Corp of Engineers personnel had been sent over along with the venerable Seabees who had been responsible for the airstrip on Contact Island. Their mission was to establish an airstrip that could take the landing of conventional aircraft instead of the gravity-dust using transportation that seemed common in Remnant airspaces.
Daniels was snapped back to reality as the C-130 disappeared in a flash of light and another one was towed into place.
"Carry on." He said and the engineer nodded.
Ruby tore open her casualty card. It listed a shallow laceration to her right shoulder. She looked on as Weiss lay on the ground and played the part of her casualty card.
Weiss was unconscious and had a protruding piece of shrapnel in her lower abdomen with heavy hemorrhaging. She also had to left arm amputated below the elbow as well as a shallow laceration on the right side of her neck that wasn't bleeding much.
Ruby worked quickly. On the dummy she quickly put a tourniquet on its arm and then went about treating the abdominal wound.
She packed in gauze around where the "shrapnel" was and then wrapped the area with a pressure bandage. Transitioning quickly, she put a light dressing on the neck wound and her own laceration and went to Weiss, picking her up.
Ruby struggled to lift her into a modified packstrap carry, with only the "uninjured" arm of Weiss being used to suspend her back to back against Ruby. Weiss grunted at the uncomfortable position but Ruby ignored her. Starting down the course.
To say Ruby was having a rough go would be an understatement. Her semblance and aura had always been key to her movement and while she wasn't a slouch when it came to running without them, she was not accustomed to heavy loads.
Her progress could be described as clumsy at best and this culminated in her falling over with Weiss letting out an uncharacteristic shriek before being tossed face-first into the ground.
An observing operator came over and asked "Name?" and after she gave it he pulled up their information on his data pad.
"The shrapnel in her abdomen was disturbed by the fall. She's bleeding more heavily than before." He pronounced, after looking at their info.
Ruby got her med-kit out and "re-wrapped" Weiss' abdomen, hoisted her up, and continued.
She stumbled and walked on, having to take a couple breaks to catch her breath before pushing onwards.
Ruby's legs were burning by the time she stumbled across the finish line, tired and stressed.
"Name?" Sergeant Clark asked.
"Ruby... Rose… and… Weiss… Schnee." She got out between breaths as other students brought their burdens in and checked in with other instructors.
"You failed, your patient died four Remnant minutes ago." Reno said, not looking up.
"But… I…" Ruby started but Reno cut her off.
"You'll be briefed in a separate session along with the others that failed, there are other people coming in now so rest and have your partner prepare for the exercise." He explained.
Ruby walked off with Weiss while they waited for the students to finish up.
"THIS IS GRIMMSHIT!" Yang exploded back at their dorm room, "How come Cardin! FUCKING CARDIN! Passes but Ruby fails!"
"Yang." Ruby pleaded.
"NO! It isn't alright. You studied and paid attention, and did the work, you should've passed. He goofed off the entire time and didn't even bother paying attention. They obviously were trying to fail you."
"Yang stop." Weiss said, more forcefully than Ruby.
"Why are you siding with them rich girl?" Yang bit out.
"YANG STOP!" Ruby yelled, catching everyone off guard. Yang was taken aback but Ruby continued, "It wasn't biased teaching I just messed up. I dropped Weiss and that worsened her condition. It was a mistake on my part. There's a session later today for those who failed the course. I asked one of the instructors about it and he said it was to address what we did wrong."
Yang's eyes went back to their normal lilac color as her temper faded but she still held on a little resentment saying, "I'm coming with you and I'll give them a piece of my mind."
Ruby just sighed and didn't force the issue.
"Congratulations you all failed." Williams said, trying to bring some life into the room of dejected teenagers. He sighed when he didn't get a reaction other than frowns.
He just nodded and stepped in front of the desk at the center of the room and sat back on it. Taking a deep breath he said, "Look some of you are here because you didn't pay attention. Some are here because you froze up when stressed. Some of you are here because you could not transport your partner to safety in time while doing everything else fine in terms of medical treatment. While a normal class would look more kindly upon the later two I will not. You failed. End of story. Had that been a real scenario your partner would've died." He looked around at their faces. His comments were not helping the mood. So be it, they would have to deal with this.
"So this brings us to what happens next. The point of this course is to learn and if you must learn from failure so be it. I would recommend you all go over what happened during the test that caused you to fail. To help with this you are being sent the data and methods we used to determine how long you had to complete it. You should write down what went wrong and figure out what you should do to prevent it from happening again because the next time you won't fail a class. Next time you fail like you did today someone dies. That is all you are dismissed."
The students filed out with the exception of Ruby and Yang.
Williams watched levely as Yang approached him, fixing him with a murderous glare. He figured she was obviously used to getting some sort of reaction out of people with that but he wasn't budging.
"What is it?" He asked, putting on a neutral tone even though he was a little annoyed.
"Why did you fail my sister?" She asked, gritting her teeth.
Williams looked between Ruby and Yang, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "You two are sisters?"
"Half-sisters. Yang, it's fine, we can go over the results in the dorm." Ruby said, tugging at Yang's arm. She shot a pleading look at Williams
Yang was motionless and Williams sighed, pulling out his scroll. "You want to know why she failed, well, lets see what the conditions were." He said, tabbing through names. "Ruby Rose, right?" he asked, looking at Ruby.
"Uh yeah." she said quietly.
"Alright. Patient had severe abdominal hemorrhaging from a large piece of protruding shrapnel as well as amputation of the left arm below the elbow with minor lacerations around the body including one on the neck. Sound right?" He asked.
Ruby nodded and he continued.
"Notes from instructor. Testee dropped patient while evacuating, disturbing shrapnel and causing massive internal hemorrhaging, reducing the amount of time the patient had from 54 Remnant minutes to only 8. Testee attempted to treat incurred injuries, earning four extra R-Minutes and continued. Testee failed to meet the cutoff time." He sighed, setting down the scroll. "It looks like you fucked up." he said plainly.
Ruby nodded but Yang slammed her hands on the desk. "You can't say stuff like that to her!" she objected.
"And why not? It's my course and I teach it how I see fit. I'm not going to pat you on the back and say nice job when you fucked up because that would be a boldfaced lie. Your sister seems to understand that better than you do so I'm actually not that worried about her. She'll figure things out. You on the other hand need to understand that shit is not always going to go how you want it. Sometimes you fuck up and sometimes someone you know dies because of that. I've had to figure that out. I pray to God you lot don't have to." Williams stopped, taking a deep breath.
The blonde still looked unconvinced so Williams closed his eyes and began his story. "It was a few months ago where that shit really sunk in for me. We were doing an op and one of my buddies took a sniper round to the neck. Severed his carotid artery. That's the one that supplies blood to the brain." He added helpfully. "Anyways I reconnected it, patched him up, gave him an IV, and brought him to a field hospital where there were more resources and personnel." He sighed again, looking off to the side.
"What happened?" Ruby asked.
"He died." Williams said simply. "When I was reconnecting his artery a bubble of air got into his bloodstream and blocked blood flow to his brain. We didn't know until he died. So yeah I fucked up and as a result one of my team members died."
There was an awkward silence which Williams broke, "If it's any consolation you did well in the first aid portion but the drop, combined with your slow speed resulted in your failure. If I were to recommend anything it would be physical conditioning and not stopping at all. You'll feel like shit now if you don't stop but you'll feel a lot worse if you let your friend die on you."
He checked his watch and asked, "Shouldn't you two have somewhere else to be?"
Ruby checked her own and let out an "eep" before running off. Yang gave him one more glance before walking out.
Williams sank into his chair before letting out a long sigh and looking at the ceiling. This really was not a lesson he should be teaching to kids. At that moment he felt a pang of rage at the headmaster for putting these kids in soldier's shoes.
He frankly hated Beacon. He hated the training sessions they held for the students. He hated the adults who would put kids out in the line of fire and sent them into an endless meat grinder.
"Trouble in paradise?" a voice asked from the doorway. It was Poole.
"I think it is a mistake aiding Beacon Academy." Williams said, "We're helping them use kids as soldiers."
Poole sighed, walking down and sitting across from Williams, "Look Martin they're going to be sent out there anyways. At least they now can keep each-other alive."
Williams chuckled and said, "I wish I could believe that."
"You can believe whatever you want. I believe what we're doing is right. We're fighting against shadow demons that want humanity destroyed. That's about as clear cut as it gets." Poole said, shrugging.
"It isn't about the fight, though I do agree with it. It's about the methods. These people don't have a standing army and yet they send teenagers that aren't even fully trained into combat. I can understand get them training them from a young age but the sheer recklessness of the whole thing is just criminal. The Atlesians seem by far the most ethical of the whole lot here and yet they're looked down on as warmongers." Williams said.
"I dunno, it's a different society. I mean plenty of the places I've been to have used 16-17 year olds at some point in history." Poole said.
"Yeah but almost always as a last resort. Hell, even the Revolutionary Guard only started using kids once they were running low on normal recruits. Have you seen the attrition rates of huntsmen? Only about 20% are left after five years of being active, having either been killed or retired, the latter often due to permanent injury. Their current model just isn't sustainable." Williams said, gritting his teeth a bit.
Poole nodded and said, "I agree I like the Atlesians more. They seem far more practical folk even if their ideas are…"
"Walking tanks." Williams added.
"Yeah, fucking retarded." Poole continued, "That's the job for suits. Ours is to make sure they're ready for combat and can stay alive until they can be pulled out or put into a more sustainable position."
"Still don't like it." Williams said, rubbing his chin.
"You don't have to, can't say I've liked a lot of assignments but it's a job. You signed up for it." Poole said.
"I signed up because I thought I could make a difference. I saw a people rise up against a repressive theocracy that had dissolved their parliament and was propped up with Russian mercenaries and weapons. 'To Liberate the Oppressed' and all that. That's what I signed up for and that's what I intend on doing." Williams said, sitting back.
"I ain't going to stop you but you shouldn't do anything too stupid." Poole said.
"Don't worry I'll be subtle about things." Williams assured.
Poole raised an eyebrow.
"What? I can do that spook shit too. You and Reno aren't unique." Williams said, throwing up his hands.
"I mean it Martin, I want to keep this team together. Don't piss too many people off." Poole said.
Williams walked up to the front of the embassy building. He showed his ID to the Marine Guards and entered. He waited in the foyer to be called and then made his way to the Ambassador's office.
"Come in." She said.
He walked in. "Ma,am." He addressed.
"I got your message, why don't you have a seat?" Ambassador Richards said, indicating a posh chair in front of her.
Williams sat down and asked, "So do you think it is do-able?"
"Do-able yes, a balanced and intelligent decision, not really." She said harshly.
He nodded and asked, "What do you think about them training and using kids?"
"I don't like it. I think it's abhorrent. But it's not my place to say and if I were to raise or would be found to leak such concerns I would be booted out of here faster than you could blink. Frankly you shouldn't pursue it further. You're going to get burned." She said in a neutral tone.
"Frankly ma'am I joined special forces. I'm not afraid of getting burned though I am more concerned about command than about the Revolutionary Guard when it comes to crossing people. It's also an anonymous tip that could be leaked via a trusted colleague. I know I'm going out on a limb here but it's going to come out sometime or later so it's better if we switch now than lead people on and face the consequences later."
She sighed and said, "I know someone but be warned if any of this is pinned. It's going to be pinned on you."
Williams nodded, saying, "Thanks, that's fine with me ma'am."
She shook her head, "I admire the conviction. You'd make a terrible politician."
"I can live with that." He said, meeting her smile with one of his own.
"Holy shit." Poole said as he looked at a CNN clip that had been sent through The Anomaly.
"What is it?" Reno asked, while he was reading a book on the history of Faunus Civil Rights.
Poole didn't answer and walked over to where Williams was writing a presentation that he was going to give to the Vale Association of Medical Practitioners. He showed the clip to Williams and hit play.
The news lady was standing in front of a greenscreen, showing protesters outside The White House and said in D.C. politician English, "Protests have intensified after the leak Monday that the various governments on Remnant engaged in the use of child soldiers and that the U.S. military was engaged in training and equipping them. The U.S. representative to the U.N. denied knowledge of the occurrence which has only sparked more outrage. The U.N. security council ruled in favor of an intervention but was blocked by Veto from the U.S. The President has not commented as of now on the exact nature of these operations. There has been heavy criticism from members of congress towards the information control that has occurred around Remnant and its people ever since first contact. Senator Daniel Sanchez has drafted a bill that would establish an independent civilian body to research and report on the situation beyond The Anomaly..."
Williams just nodded and Reno asked, "What's this about?"
"I can't in good conscience support the actions of the institution of Beacon Academy." Williams said. "And I can't exactly take much in the way of direct action against it so I worked around, called in some favors, got some help."
Reno thought about it for a minute and shrugged, "You'll make a hell of an intel sergeant if you ever want to go that way."
"I like medicine better." Williams said, going back to the presentation.
Ambassador Richards didn't really know what to make of the Vytal Festival as she watched the two teams below her duke it out. She remembered Team RWBY from the briefing on first contact but the others were complete unknowns to her.
"Enjoying the show Ambassador?" Headmaster Ozpin asked from a seat near hers in the private box.
"I'm not one for sports and this is towing the line between gladiatorial and martial so one could say I am uncomfortable." She said, not looking away from the teams.
"That's unfortunate. I take it sports like this are frowned upon on Earth." Ozpin said.
"There's a rough history behind things like this. Sure we still have martial arts but there's very strict regulations to ensure safety. This whole… thing." She said, motioning at the stadium, "Invokes images of Emperors pitting slaves and prisoners against each-other and wild animals for the entertainment of the masses."
Ozpin nodded along and said, "I hope your people can come to see that this is part of our traditions and way of life. When you are assaulted on all sides training must start early."
Richards shook her head. "I don't think you grasp the situation Headmaster. After a leak about your program a couple days ago there have been protests across our nation to put an end to your system. I know there are elements within our military which want to pull all support from Beacon academy and focus on the government of Vale instead. Like I said when we first met, the Huntsman Academies are a liability."
Ozpin nodded, maintaining his serene composure and said, "At least I think we can agree that this is better than the Atlas system. Our world hasn't been at war for over eighty years and they stand there provoking others."
Richards just chuckled, "No, we do not agree on that. People back home and within our government support Atlas more than you. They see their recruiting of adults as more ethical and they view the Grimm as a military threat. We've made efforts to adapt to your world. It's time for you to make efforts to adapt to ours."
"I'm not shutting down the Huntsmen academies." Ozpin said.
"Then simply don't send kids on combat missions." Richards said.
"They need field experience." Ozpin said.
"Around two to three of your students die each year out of a population of a few thousand. Anywhere on my world, even in special forces training that would be seen as utterly unacceptable. If Remnant really wants the help of the U.S. you have to stop with the combat missions for huntsmen in training." Richards layed out.
Ozpin chewed his lip. "Those terms are agreeable." he said just as Team RWBY won the match.
"I'm concerned we're giving the U.S. too much sway over what we do." Ironwood said in Ozpin's office.
"Yes, that we can agree on." Ozpin said, taking a sip of hot chocolate.
"We need to make it clear that there are boundaries and that they cannot use their economic and technological edge to bully us. There need to be clear consequences." Ironwood said, pacing.
"Going to war with them would be foolish. We don't know their full capabilities and from what we've seen they could probably level several districts of Vale." Ozpin said grimly.
"And there are their new aircraft that we've seen brought through The Anomaly. If I was to guess they are looking to establish a mainland presence." Ironwood speculated.
"What about this 'United Nations.' of theirs. I haven't heard much specifically but they seem to be a higher power than the United States." Ozpin said.
"I've had a couple of my personnel look into it. It has no relation to the U.S. and only holds weak global power on Earth. It's an association of their different nations, think like how signatories of the Vytal Treaty are in a loose association." Ironwood explained.
Ozpin nodded. "Nevertheless," he said, "The U.S. has a monopoly on our relationship to Earth. They control information in and out and as such hold complete sway over how things progress. I'm sure you have intimate experience dealing with monopolies General." Ozpin added, smiling.
Ironwood grimaced and said, "We need to figure out other ways to access Earth. One Mr. Polindina proposed was to use The Staff of Creation to create a portal."
"Using The Staff would likely cause questions to be asked and with a population like theirs a fount of infinite energy would be a highly desirable commodity." Ozpin speculated.
"Yes, well, I think they're actually fine on energy. We just got our first shipment of aluminum from them in exchange for dust. Apparently they have the economic means to produce it cheaply." Ironwood said, scratching his chin.
"Then it is best that we tread carefully when dealing with them." Ozpin said.
They sat in silence, watching the lone Atlesian airship over the city.
"This is the place?" Ilia asked, watching Marine security guards patrol the outside of the U.S. Embassy.
"Yeah, this is it." Deery replied, as she checked behind them while they walked the streets next to the compound. "This doesn't strike me as a good idea. They don't seem to harbor any ill-will against Faunus. Brothers, they hired Perry for some repairs. That's how we got the layout of the building." She said.
"High Leader Sienna Khan specifically ordered this after they traded for dust from the Atlesians. An example needs to be made that utilizing slave goods cannot be tolerated." Ilia explained.
Deery nodded along as they made a right turn and left the line of sight of the compound.
"Taurus has been informed of this and agreed to the plan so we're moving ahead. High Leader Sienna Khan expects much of us all so it's on you to find more from our ranks willing to do it." Ilia said.
Deery nodded nervously and said, "Of course."
Ilia smiled at her and reassuringly squeezed her shoulder. "You'll help us change the world." she said, comforting her fellow Faunus.
Ozpin and Ironwood were seated in the expansive Beacon meeting room. Somewhat haggard from his flight over came Director Daniels accompanied by Ambassador Richards. Major General McKay couldn't make it due to other duties so Daniels was attending in his stead.
They sat across the small wooden from the two Remnant dignitaries.
"Hot chocolate?" Ozpin offered, pouring some for himself from a ceramic carafe.
"No, thank you." Daniels said, "I will have coffee or whatever y'all drink around here."
"I think that can be arranged." Ironwood said, nodding to a soldier stationed at the doors.
The soldier left and they began talks.
"So what's the occasion Headmaster, General?" Richards asked, nodding to the two.
"We wish to discuss the nature of our ongoing partnership with the U.S." Ironwood said.
Richards nodded and asked, "What element of this partnership exactly do you wish to discuss?"
"Your military, and specifically where it is allowed to go." Ozpin said, "We are going to restrict how many troops you can land on the mainland."
Daniels nodded at this but Richards asked, "How are you going to enforce that?"
"By military force if necessary." Ironwood said grimly.
"But you don't control much of the mainland. How many of those villages are going to care who is in charge, especially when we can do a cut better than your huntsmen?" Richards asked.
"That land is under claim by the Kingdom of Vale and further south, Vacuo. You can't just land there and claim it's yours." Ozpin said as the coffee arrived.
"What's to stop us from just buying the land?" Daniels asked, "We're willing to offer fair rates in exchange."
"We aren't going to sell you land." Ironwood said, trying to wrap up this tangent.
"And will your councils agree to that sentiment? The southern half of your nation, Ozpin, is by nominal standards, uninhabited. We'd be more than willing to trade that for several technologies that could benefit your people greatly. You might not want us there but will your council?" Richards asked.
Ozpin's smile drew into a narrow frown and slowly he said, "We will not tolerate the domination of Remnant by the United States. We've done enough for you now you must do something for us."
Richards flushed at the comment but asked, "So what's your final deal?"
"The troops you have stationed on the mainland may stay but no more may come for the near future. You may resupply them but no personnel from those supply runs are to remain for more than 30 Remnant hours or around 26 and a half Earth hours. Specifically designated civilian personnel are to be allowed with passes. Any additional military persons are to be subject to approval from the Vale council." Ironwood explained.
Richards nodded, taking in the terms.
"This isn't a negotiation. We aren't budging from these." Ozpin said gravely.
"Wonderful news then." Daniels said, downing his third cup of coffee, "What's next?"
AN: Shorter chapter but the next one needed to be broken up as I try to limit how many plot threads I incorporate or create per chapter. It would've just gotten confusing so it's better this way.