Beacon Academy, Cliffside Range
October 13th, 1124 local time, 2552
"Going hot," Ben reported, before taking aim with his magnum.
The latest prototype left the barrel at impressive speeds, leaving nothing but an empty casing and a deafening thunderclap in its wake. Fifty meters away, a supersonic FMJ bullet tore through the hay and canvas target, a perfect bullseye visible in the red and white markings.
"Nice shot!" Ruby said. "Darn... are they supposed to be so loud?"
"The projectile is meant to perforate the sound barrier, so yes. Remnant's do not always do this, although I suppose that ours do not either." Curie answered. He'd left her chip on the table beside his extra rounds, and she kept her hologram displayed for easier communication with Ruby.
"That's kinda annoying, it sort of hurts..." Ruby said, rubbing her ears to punctuate her point.
Ben cocked his helmet at her in confusion. "Doesn't your Aura protect you from hearing damage?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not irritating." Ruby answered.
Ben thought it over for a moment, before deducing a solution to the problem. He disconnected the headset from his field telephone, and handed the improvised headphones to Ruby. Although they weren't purpose-built to protect against loud noises, they were designed to muffle the sounds of battle. "Here, these should help."
"Ah, thanks." Ruby said, taking the headset and trying it on. "Weird, I can still hear things."
"They only protect against harmful sounds, not anything lower than that, so you can still understand what people are saying around you." Ben explained. "Here, keep them on, I've still got a few more rounds that we need to go through here."
Ben steadily depleted his magazine of the ammunition and found himself satisfied with the performance of the latest batch of rounds. Ruby's suggestion had worked wonders towards fixing the accuracy issue, leaving them with a faster bullet that could still deliver the valuable effects offered by Dust. The two kinds that stood out in Ben's mind were Time Dust and Gravity Dust, two rarer forms with extremely valuable influences on the battlefield.
He'd also begun experimenting with using his minuscule amounts of Aura to influence the specific effects of the Dust. They had some sort of odd connection, allowing the user to determine specifics of what the bullet would do. Ice Dust could be configured to influence its density and how far the crystals would spread, Fire Dust had configurable temperatures which made it burn away faster, and Earth Dust could be used to create solid rock as well as dirt. Although you didn't technically need an Aura to create more specific effects, it was a hell of a lot more practical than specially engineering every single bullet for each exact purpose.
It was unusual to get used to, but with practice, it began to come to him fairly naturally. It was almost like having a mental connection to the bullet itself, which behaved almost like a computer. It would ask what Ben wanted from it, and he would command it with a set of simple instructions, which it would then perform.
Ruby proved invaluable in helping him learn how to perform the action. She had helped him figure out exactly how to create that connection between his Aura and the Dust in his bullet, and some of the things he could do with them. Apparently that same effect applied to his weapons and armor, although he was still learning about that.
"Looks a lot better than before." Ruby noted, once Ben's magazine was depleted. His target grouping was much better than before, marking an improvement in the quality of the ammunition. "Do you think this batch will work?"
"Maybe." Ben noted. "There's a lot more to a bullet than just shooting it."
"Like the additional recoil, how much filth it creates in the internal mechanisms, the quality of the materials used, and how easy they are to produce." Curie elaborated as Ben safetied his weapon.
"Hey, Ruby!" An unfamiliar woman's voice said from behind them.
Ruby certainly seemed excited to hear them, and quickly handed the headset back to Ben. He turned to see that Ruby was talking with Blake and a blond woman that he didn't recognize a few stations down the range.
"Ah, I see that Miss Xiao Long has finally decided to pay us a visit." Curie noted, raising an eyebrow in faint surprise.
Ah, Ruby's sister. Ben realized. Ruby had talked about her team at length, so the connection was easily made. "She doesn't look like I figured she would."
"Genetics can be a fickle thing." Curie noted as the three young Huntresses walked over towards them.
"So, you're Ben and Curie, I take it?" Yang asked, seemingly taking more interest in Curie than Ben, but extended her hand to him nonetheless. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Yang, Ruby's sister."
"Likewise ma'am." Ben said, accepting the handshake. "Ruby's spoken at length about you."
"I certainly hope she's only had good things to say." Yang said, letting out a faint chuckle as Ruby awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "I gotta say, you don't really look how I was expecting."
Ben raised an eyebrow behind his visor. "What were you expecting?"
"I dunno, something more... alien, I guess." Yang said.
"Yang, they're still humans." Blake pointed out.
"Well yeah, but he's not from Remnant, and that makes him an alien!" Yang argued. Even if Yang obviously didn't mean it as an insult, Ben still couldn't help but frown. Still, she quickly shifted her focus back towards him. "So, what've you and my sister been up to? Other than talking about me, of course."
Nice. Ben cynically thought. Still, it didn't seem like arrogance was the cause for Yang's statements, but Ben couldn't pinpoint what was. Maybe she's just... flamboyant?
"Weapons development." Ben answered. "Well, Curie and Ruby do most of the work, I just test-fire the rounds and make the propellant."
Curie looked up at him. "Don't discount your contributions, Ben. It's not like I can do what you do." Ben responded with a green ping on his status indicator, a means of quietly thanking her.
"Ruby said you were making bullets." Yang said. "But I guess that counts as weapons."
"Well a gun with no bullets isn't very useful, is it?" Ben asked rhetorically. "We've been making some decent progress, our latest batch has some promising results."
"Even if they are really loud." Ruby added.
"Oh, so that's what those explosions were." Blake said, her eyes seemingly flickering with a hint of recognition.
"Really now?" Yang suddenly seemed a lot more interested. "What were you guys firing? Some kind of shotgun?"
"I was using my sidearm." Ben answered.
Both Blake and Yang seemed somewhat surprised, but unsurprisingly, Yang spoke first. "Your weapon is a pistol?"
"Yes." Ben answered, not understanding their confusion. "Is something wrong with that?"
"Well no..." Yang answered. "It's just that... given the noise and the armor I was expecting something a little... bigger, I guess."
Ben gave a faint chuckle. "We have more than one gun Miss Xiao Long, I just brought this pistol to test with."
"Well, I figured that much." Yang said. "I just thought that since it was so loud, it wouldn't be something like a pistol."
"Don't underestimate the magnum." Ben said. "It's been in service for over a hundred and forty years, and for good reason."
"You didn't tell me that!" Ruby protested. "I thought you said you'd tell me about your weapon!"
"I did." Ben simply replied. "Telling you everything about it would be a bit time-consuming, I opted to give you a shortened version of its history."
Yang gave him a look of sympathy. "Yeah, Ruby has a bit of a... passion for weapons."
I see, I'm not the only one she pesters. Ben realized. "It's a good passion to have, especially in your line of work."
"Not to mention Miss Rose's contributions to our project. We would still be at the drawing board without her." Curie added.
"Aww, thanks Curie." Ruby said, a hint of embarrassment on her face from being the focus of attention.
Yang seemed incredibly proud of her sister. "So, she helped you figure out a problem you were having?"
"Indeed." Curie said. "I simply said that her expertise in this field of development has been incredibly helpful."
"Damn Ruby, good work." Yang said, before quickly and quietly adding an extra sentence. "See if they'll pay you."
"Yang, I didn't do it for money!" Ruby protested.
"I'm afraid I'm not authorized to pay her." Ben said, relieved that Ruby saw a purpose in her work besides money.
"You're welcome to keep the testing ammunition, and of course the recipe, once we have it done." Curie offered.
"Do it, take the bullets!" Yang insisted.
"Yang!" Ruby protested. "Don't be so greedy, I'm doing this to help everyone!"
"Ruby, it's alien ammo! Tell me that doesn't sound awesome!" Yang argued.
Ruby and Yang continued to bicker as Curie and Ben looked to one another with a glance of amusement. Blake's face indicated that this was a typical occurrence on their team.
I'm amazed that someone as soft-spoken as Blake is partnered with someone as loud and energetic as Yang. Ben thought.
"The ammunition is meant to be for everyone on Remnant." He pointed out. "You'll get your chance to use it."
"Let them discuss this themselves Ben, I believe this is what sisters do." Curie interjected. It seemed that both Ruby and Yang had ignored his words, so he opted to take Curie's advice.
"Yeah, it is." Blake confirmed as the three of them watched Ruby and Yang argue over it. "So, you're giving this stuff to everyone?"
"Indeed." Curie said. "Our intention is to reduce Remnant's reliance on Dust, while also improving the ballistic capabilities of your weapons against the Grimm."
"...I see." Blake said, although Ben got the impression that she probably had expected a different answer. "So, we'll all just be able to use this stuff in our weapons?"
"That's the idea." Ben confirmed. "I don't know what kind of weapon you use, but as long as it's a gun..."
Blake had already proceeded to draw a sword that apparently had some kind of sidearm built into the hilt. Although Ben had seen the sheath of her sword, he hadn't thought that her pistol would be part of the same weapon as the sword.
"...or, you know, a sword with a gun in it, I guess that works too..." Ben said, wondering if placing his palm on his helmet would be considered impolite. "Where and how do you people come up with the ideas for these things?"
"Experience in the field." Blake answered, with a surprising degree of confidence. "I built this to give me a degree of mobility, and something for both long and close range."
"Mobility?" Ben asked, not understanding how her weapon would play into her mobility unless it was unusually large.
"She can use the ribbon to swing on things, like a grappling hook." Yang pointed out, seemingly having resolved her quarry with Ruby. "It's pretty neat actually, but I figure you guys have jetpacks or something for that."
Well, she's not wrong... Ben thought, although hearing that the purpose behind the fabric ribbon on Blake's weapon had already reinvigorated the faint headache that he'd had since he arrived at Beacon. This planet is just begging for a doctrinal study.
"Ben, I have just had an idea." Curie said. "I believe that Yang and Blake could help us test this latest batch as a way of testing its performance with Remnant-made weapons."
"Well, I can do that too..." Ruby awkwardly said.
"Crescent Rose is a single-action rifle, I believe that Miss... I mean, Blake's weapon is an autoloading pistol." Curie said. "Testing the effects of the pressure on her weapon would be extremely useful if she would like to help us. The same goes for Yang's weapon."
"Say no more, I'm in!" Yang said.
"Sure, why not?" Blake said, seemingly surprisingly disinterested.
"Splendid!" Curie said. "We shall proceed immediately. Ben, would you mind breaking down some of your rounds?"
Ben gave a faint sigh at the monotony of the task presented. "I'll get to it. Ruby, would you care to help me here?"
"Not at all!" Ruby enthusiastically said. "I mean uh... sure!"
Dominion, War Room
October 13th, 1244 local time, 2552
Notes and pictures haphazardly covered the holotable, along with perhaps a few too many mugs of coffee. Around it, Richard and Jorge brainstormed their next mission, now dubbed Operation Hindenburg by Lieutenant Thomas. Although Richard noted the irony of naming an operation that aimed to steal airships after one of the most legendary dirigible accidents in human history, he didn't mind it too much.
It seems like Lieutenant Thomas knows a bit more about history than I figured... Richard thought.
"Sir, a new report from Atlas." Jorge said, breaking the silence.
He proceeded to hand a datapad to Richard, which he took and read over the title of the report, immediately recognizing that it was going to be a difficult read. It was an in-depth list of all equipment that had been lost after the defections in the Atlesian Military, and it was depressingly long. Thankfully, it was very detailed, and it would give the UNSC an idea of what to expect from the defenses of the Central Distribution Center.
Point Hindenburg, the name's a goddamn mouthful. Richard thought, quickly jotting down the new bit of jargon before he continued to browse through the long list of Atlesian weapons.
It seemed that the Atlesian Army had fared far better than the airfleet had in terms of defections. Nothing as drastic as a trio of capital warships had been stolen, but that didn't mean nothing valuable was missing. Military trucks, a hovercraft APC, some kind of mechanized combat walker, at least a full platoon of Atlesian Knight drones, and most worryingly, and a series of high-caliber anti-aircraft cannons, as well as a worrying amount of small arms and munitions.
"Oh for the love of..." Richard said, both irritated and wearied by the discovery.
"Yeah, reminds me of the Innies." Jorge said. "Missing assets, mass defections, and a lot of bad news for everyone involved."
"Well... I suppose this means we've gotta think a bit more carefully." Richard said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he placed the datapad back on the holotable.
Anti-aircraft cannons meant that any air support the Dominion deployed would need to operate outside of the effective range of those weapons, limiting their options significantly. Their primary aerial platforms, like the Hornets and Sparrowhawks, were VTOL and lacked any sort of higher speeds, not to mention the fact that their autocannons had a limited range, meaning that the risk for their deployment was way too high to be justifiable in any way.
And without air support, the Infantry will be at too much risk to justify deploying them. Richard thought. "Damn, I'd gotten used to having air supremacy..."
"There's no such thing Sir, at least, that's what the Admirals like to say." Jorge said. "Those AA guns mean we have to rethink this whole Op from the ground up."
Richard pondered the assets he had at his disposal, keeping the Marines supported was his top priority. "Do you think we can afford to outfit the Sabres for close air support?"
"Too much firepower, and not enough accuracy. We'd kill half of the freighters before we ever touched them." Jorge answered, immediately ruling out the fighters as an option. "What about the Vultures, Sir? They're a mean piece of work, and they've got the longer-range cannons, not to mention their missiles. If we play this carefully, we should be able to keep the enemy on their back foot, and the precious cargo intact."
Richard thought it over, but quickly realized that Jorge was completely right. Even if the Vultures were targeted, they were so stubborn and durable that their armor could take a few hits. The UNSC didn't employ flying tanks, but the Vulture came close. "Good thinking. Have Bradford inform the CAG, we'll need Spellmaster Squadron for this mission."
"Aye Sir." Jorge said, quickly relaying a message to the XO. "Do we have a plan for insertion?"
"The Pelicans aren't durable enough to risk for anything other than reserves." Richard immediately said.
SOEIV drop pods were the obvious answer, but the Marines weren't trained with them, so it wasn't an option. Warthogs and Lynxes were another option, but a direct assault against the enemy defenses was still risky. Supporting them with Scorpions and maybe even Grizzlies would help alleviate those concerns, however, and some mortars loaded with smoke rounds could offer some cover to the advancing forces.
Still, it would be better if we could attack them from the inside somehow, get around their defenses, an infantry infiltration of sorts. Richard thought. "I think I might have something in mind, but I'll need to speak with General Ironwood first. For now, we'll plan around a distant landing, then an assault with Armor and Warthogs, covered by smoke rounds from artillery."
"Aye Sir." Jorge said as he made note of the decision. "There was another thing that I was hoping to run past you, although I'll admit, it's going to be... controversial."
Richard closed his eyes and took a single deep breath. "Go ahead."
"Specialist Schnee warned me that the SDC likely has at least a full squad of Specialists at their disposal, we need a way to take them down quickly." Jorge said. "My suggestion is to outfit Onyx Team with plasma weaponry."
In truth, Richard had already been thinking about the same thing. It was nearly a certainty that the Marines would encounter the fearsome enemy Specialists, and he was looking for a solution even before the operation had begun planning. Plasma weapons were an obvious solution, but they had two major faults that they would need to face if the assault force was going to use them.
The major strategic limitation they faced was their inability to reload or replace the weapons that they had. Most Covenant weapons, particularly anything that used either plasma or the exploding pink needles, had eluded UNSC scientists' efforts to understand them. As a result, what weapons they had were all that they were going to get.
I bet that damn Elite knows how to reload a plasma rifle, too bad he's such a cocky son of a bitch. Richard grumpily thought.
The second issue was one of morality, which admittedly, was something that Richard had been perfectly willing to ignore in the past. Curie had theorized that plasma would fuse to a person's Aura as it would to someone's clothes or skin, only you couldn't cut the Aura off of somebody to separate the burning plasma from their bodies.
The ugly reality was that a target's Aura would either be depleted and they would be slowly burned away, or the plasma would cool and the target would be left bloodied and bruised, but alive. Every time he thought about it, he could only think about Ben's face, and how every day for years on end he would be faced with the true capabilities of plasma weapons, and what they did to a human being, even one lucky enough to survive.
Regardless of his personal feelings, he gave a faint sigh, and a nod. "Lieutenant, whatever you think is going to keep our men alive, you have my authorization to do. Coordinate with Lieutenant Clark, and select what equipment you think will work."
Jorge gave a stern nod, and although he was wearing his helmet, Richard could tell by Jorge's body language that he didn't like it either. "Understood Sir. Permission to inspect the armory?"
"Granted." Richard dryly said, reaching for his mug of coffee as the Spartan left the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
One more battle, and then we can stop killing other humans. It's all monsters and Demons from here on out. Richard thought in a vain effort to encourage himself, but it was a lost cause. Steeling himself once again, he reached for his earpiece. "Lieutenant Chen, patch me through to General Ironwood."
Beacon Academy, Cliffside Range
October 13th, 1711 local time, 2552
"Alright, give it a shot." Ben instructed. Beside him, Ruby stood and watched as Yang prepared to take her shot, while Curie eagerly awaited the moment of truth.
Yang pulled back her arm and fired. The latest, and likely final prototype of Remnant's brand new propellant burned away in the blink of an eye, creating a large pressure wave which sent Yang's slug towards the target at impressive speeds. The solid projectile carved its way effortlessly through the thin target at the end of the range, before careening over the cliff and into the forest.
"Whoo!" Yang loudly exclaimed, shaking her arm to punctuate her point. "It kicks like a horse, but damn, it works!"
Well, you did just fire a small-caliber shotgun off of your forearm... Ben thought somewhat cynically, but he was too pleased with their success to particularly care.
"You may wish to modify your weapon's recoil-dampening system to adhere to modern specifications." Curie suggested. "I'm authorized to send you some suggestions based on older-models of UNSC armaments, if you would like."
"Sure! It's been a long time since I took Ember Celica to the shop anyway..." Yang said, glancing at her weapons as if already pondering potential improvements.
"Oh!" Ruby immediately piped up. "Can I-"
"I already have." Curie interrupted her with an answer.
"Yay!" Ruby replied, throwing her hands into the air with enthusiasm.
Ben looked down the range and admired Yang's surprisingly accurate shot. She'd paved her way through the center of the target with seemingly little difficulty. While it wasn't a particularly long-range shot, the esoteric nature of her weapon likely added some extra challenge. Why she'd elected to design a firearm based around fistfighting was beyond him.
Forget bullets, we should be making bayonets, hand those out on a regional scale and we'll wipe the Grimm out in no time. Ben thought. Although I'm not sure that the Huntsmen would use them right… They'd probably tape them together and make a damn boomerang.
"I think that this mixture is exactly what we're looking for." Curie said. "Although I'll admit, I was hoping to keep more of Remnant's weaponry compatible than we ended up with. It's a good thing we had Blake to help us, we might not have figured that out..."
"It's a change in powder, some adjustments to the weapons were always going to be needed." Ben said, noting how that mistake had cost many soldiers their lives, as they were handed weapons with ammo not well suited to them. Curie and Ruby had taken extensive care to avoid those fatal mistakes.
"Don't worry about it Curie, we can handle a few modifications." Ruby said, patting her Sniper-Scythe to punctuate her point.
I still can't believe that thing can fold down so far... Ben thought. He could only speculate how many different iterations the weapon must've gone through, it must've been forged from childhood.
"What're you going to call this stuff?" Yang asked as she collected her spent casing.
Ben, Curie and Ruby all looked to her, prompting her to look back at them with a smirk. "Did I uh... say something wrong?"
"No." Curie answered. "I suppose I just hadn't thought of that."
Yang fiddled with her hair as she thought about what to say. "Well, you've gotta give it a name! What are you calling it now?"
"Experimental Propellant Mixture Number Three-Zero-Two." Curie said, awkwardly shifting her feet as she spoke.
"Ok uh, maybe not that." Yang said, pointing at her to punctuate her point. "What about you Ben, do you have any ideas?"
He thought it over for a moment, but quickly realized it was a lost cause, naming things was not his forte. Still, he did have something to contribute to the effort. "I don't, but whatever you pick, it should probably be something more familiar to Remnant's culture."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, seemingly just as confused as Yang.
"The people on Remnant are unusually artistic in how you name things, take your weapons for example." Ben answered, gesturing towards the two Huntresses. "If we gave this a traditional military designation, it would likely be viewed as something more unconventional than it actually is."
I think. Ben silently added. He was a soldier, not a salesman, this was far from his region of expertise.
"I agree, something a bit more marketable would probably prove to be a good idea." Curie said.
Yang shook her head slightly. "You really think people aren't going to use this stuff just because we give it a bad name?"
"With all due respect, you are the one who asked for my input." Ben pointed out, somewhat perturbed by her sass. "I think that people will use it anyway, but it will be an easier transition if we can convince your people that this stuff was made with them in mind."
"So... maybe name it after some kind of Dust?" Ruby suggested, scratching the back of her head.
"This is not Dust, and labeling it as such would be both disingenuous and counterproductive." Curie said, although she did her best to speak softly. "Perhaps we should look more into your planet's culture for some suggestions."
The debate continued on for a few more minutes, as the four of them bounced between different ideas and theories as to what would inspire the right reactions from the users of the new propellant. Ruby finally produced a solid idea, an acronym, to give both a descriptive and punctual name. Yang and Curie each contributed dozens of words that they could disassemble for the name, ranging from more serious suggestions like different colors, to more unconventional suggestions like the word "violence".
Actually, that one would probably work, at least when it comes to conveying the purpose of this stuff... Ben thought, before realizing that Yang had probably suggested it as a joke. In the end, however, it was the other co-inventor of the new propellant who proposed the final candidate.
"What about ARM?" Curie suggested. "Standing for "Artificial Remnant Mixture"."
"Ooh, I like that one." Yang said, flexing her muscles as if to punctuate her point. "What do you think of it, Ruby?"
"...It works." Ruby said, although she seemed less than thrilled. "I don't exactly have any better suggestions, so... why not?"
"Chin up, Ruby." Ben said, noting her slightly disheartened nature. "You're not always going to come up with a perfect solution to a problem. And the appearance of any weapon is always secondary to the function."
His words seemed to click with her. "I guess that's true. Besides, it's not like I'm going to top "Crescent Rose" anytime soon."
"Indeed you aren't little sis', but don't let that stop you from trying." Yang said, pulling her into a one-arm hug. Ruby did her best to fight it off, much to Ben and Curie's amusement.
"Perfect name or not, you just helped give everyone on Remnant a better fighting chance against the Grimm, that's a hell of an accomplishment." Ben said, noting Ruby's shoulders hike up with pride at his words. "I'll make sure to mention you in my report."
"I uh, thanks Ben." Ruby replied, seemingly a bit stunned by his words. "So uh, what are you guys gonna do now?"
"Collect our belongings and return to the Dominion." Curie answered. "Our mission is complete, and we shall see to the next."
Ruby's face fell slightly, but she did a very good job of concealing her disappointment. "Well... you both stay safe, alright?"
"I wouldn't dream of anything else, Miss Rose." Curie replied, before Ben reached down and collected her chip, slotting it back into his Neural Interface. He gathered up the field telephone and headset before Yang raised another question.
"Hey, Ben... what about all of this stuff?" She asked, gesturing towards a small container holding some of the prototype mixtures.
"I'll make sure to-" Ben began, but found himself interrupted by Curie.
"They were assembled out of Beacon Academy's materials, therefore they belong to you, I suppose." Curie answered. "Do be careful with them, you're at great risk of hurting yourself otherwise."
Yang gave a worrying cackle as she scooped up as much of the propellant as she could, before leaving with her ill-gotten gains.
"You had authorization to give her that propellant, right?" Ben privately asked her.
"Of course." Curie discretely answered, satisfying his concerns. "She is a Huntress, Ben. I'm sure that she and Ruby will be responsible with it."
I certainly hope so... Ben thought.
"I'll uh... make sure she doesn't hurt herself... or anyone else." Ruby said, although Ben could see that she wasn't as worried as she let on. "See you guys around, I guess."
"Yes, until next time." Ben replied, although he was well aware that they probably wouldn't meet again.
It didn't take long for Fireball to arrive to pick up Ben and Curie with her Pelican, and with one final wave to the red-caped huntress in training, they set off back towards the Dominion. Ben could see that she was still looking out at the Pelican from the landing pad even as the rear hatch shut.
"So Ben, what did you think?" Curie asked as Ben took a seat in the Pelican's troop compartment.
"Of what?" he asked.
"Beacon Academy, team RWBY, working with another military body." Curie answered, her voice rich with curiosity.
He leaned his head back and genuinely pondered it for a moment. Beacon had been a very valuable experience for Ben, certainly more so than he'd initially given it credit for. Although he'd certainly never enlist as a student or a Huntsman, he had still managed to learn quite a lot about Remnant and its people from the quirky military college.
"I suppose it wasn't that bad... although the defenses are a bit lackluster." Ben answered, letting out a soft chuckle at Curie's frustrated groan.
"You know what I meant!" Curie insisted. "I am fully capable of running combat simulations myself, I wanted to know what you thought about the people!"
He decided to humor her, knowing fully well that she'd had to convince him to maintain any enthusiasm for the mission from the start. "It's different, not just Beacon, but Remnant as a whole. The more I think about it, the more I realize just how much we have to learn about this place, and about our new enemies and allies."
"So, would you say that you feel your perception of Beacon has changed in any way?" Curie asked.
"I suppose, just, not how I expected." Ben answered. "It's a piss-poor boot camp, but they're not trying to be a military force... Beacon's something else, something stranger. I don't know what to make of them."
"Well, that is certainly a more positive outlook on Beacon than you had at the start of this mission." Curie noted, a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
"I guess so." Ben said, finally admitting defeat. Then again, he lost more or less every debate that he had with Curie, so it wasn't a particularly humiliating loss.
Ben couldn't help but feel a bit of relief as the Pelican was gripped by the mechanical arms of the Dominion's starboard hangar. As he took a step out of the back of the Pelican and onto the flight deck, he took a moment to take in the familiar sights.
"Welcome back Sierra!" One of the Technicians happily commented from atop one of the Sabres, Ben replied with a simple thumbs-up.
It's good to be back. Ben thought as he started walking again. "Where to Curie?"
"Starboard Armory, Lieutenant Jorge wants to see us as soon as possible." Curie answered.
"Then let's not keep him waiting." Ben said.