Chapter 2: Bad Decisions
Jaune tried not to fall asleep on the way there, he really did. But somewhere on the way there, he must have, and he regretted that choice very much, more than any other he's made.
He blinked rapidly, hearing a distant voice that sounded like it was at the end of a tunnel. His senses coming back to him, he then realized there was a very large, bearded man in front of him, who looked extremely pissed off.
"What the hell are you doing, recruit?" asked the man, "Is this the kind of retard that comes in from the civilian intake? Holy fuck!"
Jaune realized in an instant that he had screwed up, really, really bad. So he tried to stand up, accidentally bumping into the man, who he realized was clothed in the same uniform as his recruiter, "Sorry!" he apologized quickly.
The man's stare pierced his soul, Jaune started to squirm under its gaze. He quietly spoke, "I will fucking destroy you kid. Get the fuck off the bus, now."
Jaune was eager to follow the order, practically sprinting off the bus. He considered the enormity of what he had just gotten into, this definitely wasn't like Beacon at all. In lieu of strict, but fair teachers, were the tough men like the one who woke him up. Maybe this wasn't his best decision he's ever made, though he could say that about a lot of his decisions.
Stepping outside he blinked a few times to adjust to the blinding light of the midday sun. Once his vision adjusted he saw a loose formation of men and women, presently being screamed at by a lot of angry, hard men wearing berets and the same olive drab uniforms. He felt someone pushing him from behind and realized it was the man who woke him up. He promptly found himself in front of the entire formation.
"So who can tell me, why you left one of your own on the bus," began the man, waving his hand around. "Why is it, the first fucking day here, you're already fucking over one of your own guys!"
Utter silence from the gathered PMC hopefuls.
The man let out a huge sigh, "Fucking hell, okay kid, get in formation before I smoke your ass. Also, your armour looks stupid as shit."
Jaune was about to open his mouth to defend his choice of attire, then thought better and awkwardly stumbled his way to an open spot.
The man stood in front of them, hands on his hips, others standing to the side, "Welcome to Striker Group Basic Training, you are civilian intake 0241, so people with no military experience! And I have to say, first impressions are not that fucking great! I'm Warrant Officer Moss, I'll be your chief instructor for this course, we also have Sergeants Russ, Rouge, and Razz, who will assist me. You will refer to us as Instructor, or our ranks if you're specifically addressing, in my case you'll call me Warrant, is that clear?"
Moss gestured to the blond-haired, black-haired and silver-haired man respectively. They were heavy-set men who looked like they ate knives for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but Razz was surprisingly small, looking like a normal person. Jaune was taken aback, he came in expecting everyone to be jacked beyond belief. Sure Razz was muscular, but not overly so.
"Yes, Instructor!"
"First, you will make your way through processing, where you will be issued what you need, and your personal effects stored. Don't worry, they'll be returned. Now get moving before I PT all of you to hell and back!"
The recruits took the hint and started along the path laid out before them. Jaune followed along, eager not to draw the ire of the Instructors. More thoughts whirled through his head, he would have to hand over Crocea Mors? He would only hope that he'll get it back. His dad will have his head if he lost it, in fact, he'll have his head after he found out he joined a PMC!
"Get in a single file line!" yelled Sergeant Russ, getting up in their faces.
Motivated by the screaming man, they formed themselves into a line going into several buildings. Jaune finally decided to take stock of his surroundings, having been too terrified to do so before. Looking around, he finally realized they were in the middle of nowhere, in fact, it looked to be a bustling military base. Armoured vehicles were driving around, contractors were in uniform, some marching around. Jaune realized that when they said it was a Private Military Company, they weren't kidding about the military part.
Soon, he was facing the supply officer, a uniform was given to him along with a bag of stuff he was told he would need.
"Alright, I'll just need your sword and armour," said the Supply Officer. Seeing his reluctance, he continued. "Don't worry kid, you'll get it back, and we won't lose it."
Still, Jaune unclipped Crocea Mors and took off his armour with great reluctance, he had just started to use them properly and didn't want to let them go. He handed them over to the Supply Officer reluctantly.
"Alright thank y-" the Supply Officer paused for a second. "What i- you know what, nevermind."
Looking up, he was confused for a moment before he heard the sniggers of his fellow recruits. Glancing down at his Pumpkin Pete hoodie, there was nothing wrong with it, why was everyone laughing? He liked his hoodie, pfft, he probably had something funny on his back.
Sergeant Razz walked up to him from behind and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Kid, you might want to take off the hoodie."
Jaune realized that his hoodie was, in fact, the thing they were laughing at, and so threw off his hoodie as fast as possible. He hid his face in embarrassment and shuffled along, eager to avoid attention now. The rest of the reception was a blur, he couldn't remember half of it, but in the end, he was in his new uniform, an ID card velcroed to his shoulder patch, malformed beret on his head, and a green bag full of his stuff.
As he walked outside he was pushed into a formation by someone behind him. He felt extremely out of place in the group of muscular men all around him. Looking to his right he saw the same lanky teen he saw at the bus stop in Vale. Everyone had just gotten a haircut, which made recognizing him just that much harder.
"Hey," Jaune whispered. "What's your name?"
Surprised, the teen looked over to Jaune, before snapping back to the front to avoid the instructors' ire, who were busy yelling at another recruit.
"Thistle, Thistle Redwood."
"Nice to meet you Thistle, I'm Jaune."
That was a mistake for Jaune because Moss had heard his last line. The Warrant Officer stormed over to him, boots clicking against the asphalt ground, his hand formed into a knife, with a face ready to kill.
"Holy shit!" yelled Moss right into Jaune's face. "What is your name recruit?"
"Ja- Jaun-"
"Lastname you retarded fuck!"
"Arc, Sir."
Moss looked at him blankly, before giving a single order, "Drop."
He blinked a few times, drop? "Um-"
"Fucking pushups!" shrieked Moss into his ear. "Do them! Do them for the rest of formation! I said to call me Instructor, or my rank, not fucking sir you dumb piece of shit!"
Jaune practically fell forward, spurred on by Moss' screaming. As Moss walked back to the front, he strained to listen to him as he spoke to the rest of the recruits.
Moss walked to the front of the thirty two assembled recruits, "Welcome recruits! Now that you've been properly signed in and welcomed, you will pick a fireteam partner, and you will not go anywhere without them. If we see you without your partner, we'll fuck you up."
Silence from the recruits, the only sound was Jaune's grunts and groans as he struggled to do pushups.
"Go pick a partner when I say so, then go to the barracks," Moss gestured to the long building in the distance. "Leave your kit there and report back here after you're done. Move!"
The mass of recruits departed to their barracks, Jaune pushed himself up, ready to leave. Jaune was then assailed by Moss from seemingly nowhere, he had no idea how he managed to cover such a distance so fast.
"Did I say you could fucking stand up Arc?" screamed Moss.
Jaune flinched, "No Warrant!" he said, wise from his last mistake.
He scrambled to get back down, heart racing. He smelled of sweat and terror, hardly the best combination. Especially when there was a bloodhound of an Instructor who had something out for him. Would he just give me a break? He thought but didn't ask.
"Get up!" Moss yelled angrily. "Did I say to get back down?"
Jumping up, confusion and terror were written all over the boy's face. He had just screamed at him for getting up, now for getting back down?
"No Warrant!" Jaune called back.
Moss pointed to the barracks sharply, "Put your shit away Arc, before I get angrier."
Sprinting away, Jaune was keen to escape the terrifying gaze of the Instructors. Entering the barracks, Jaune claimed the last bed at the end of the row, conveniently next to Thistle.
"Holy crap!" Jaune began, laying down his stuff. "I swear Moss has something out for me."
"I don't know Jaune," replied Thistle, walking away. "You're sticking out a lot, you gotta keep a low profile to not catch the Instructor's attention."
"Maybe so. Hey, want to be partners?" Jaune asked, but to no response. Looking back at the entrance he could see Thistle trying to sprint to the formation, a few stragglers behind him. With abject terror, he realized he was already behind schedule, and that Moss would use this as an excuse to terrorize him. This in his thoughts, he practically flew out of the barracks. Thistle's eyes widened as he watched Jaune speed past just about everyone. Holy shit, he thought.
Luckily for Jaune, he wasn't the last one to get there, the last few stragglers streaming out, Thistle just behind Jaune.
Moss starting clapping, slowly at first, before grabbing a latercomer and getting right into their face, "I fucking had Arc out here while you prissy fuckers were putting on your makeup. Arc fucking beat you here after I chewed him out. Can you fucking explain why you're late you dumbfuck?"
The latecomer had long brown hair and a large muscular frame. Jaune thought he looked familiar, but couldn't put a finger on it.
"I don't know, Warrant!" yelled the latercomer.
"Well," said Moss. "What's your fucking name recruit?"
"Winchester, Warrant!"
Oh.
"Get back in formation!" Moss yelled, pointing at the mass of recruits.
Winchester ran back into the mass of recruits, an furious expression on his face like he wanted to punch someone. He shot an angry glare at Jaune, it reminded him of an earlier experience, one that wasn't so pleasant, and eventually got him kicked out. Uh oh, he thought.
Moss leisurely paced in front of them, having calmed down, "Alright recruits, we'll take you to your first class, where you'll learn some stuff about Striker Group. Afterwards is taking care of your uniform, then our first PT session. Finally, we'll let you all have some freetime. Double file on me, we'll be learning the drill movements later. Move!"
The recruits formed a double-file line hurriedly and made their way to their first class.
/ - /
Jaune sat down in the messhall next to Thistle, who awkwardly looked his way. They had paired up earlier, one of the last Fireteam Partners to form surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, Jaune thought.
"Hey," Jaune said.
"Hi," Thistle said through a full mouth of food.
Jaune began shovelling food into his mouth, speaking between bites, "Y'know, never really thought about the state of our military, but knowing everyone besides Atlas just sort of has a border guard is kind of weird."
Thistle's eyes lit up, shining with an eagerness reserved for only overexplaining a specific topic, "Yeah! That's where we come in, Huntsman can't be everywhere, and there's only so many, and our military is a border guard, and we don't get many guys from the military, and that's why we recruit from civilians. Atlas guys coming into PMCs aren't too common you see, our role in the totempoleisactuallykindofnichebecauseHun-"
"Woah there Thistle, slow down there man!" said Jaune, raising a hand, a faint smile on his face when remembered when Ruby would speak super fast just like that. His smile disappeared the next moment.
"Something wrong man?" said Thistle, this time slower.
He shook his head, "Nah, just remembered something. It's fine, really," he said in response to Thistle's protests.
A thought had just come to him, how did Thistle even know so much? So he asked him.
The wiry teen shifted around on the bench uncomfortably, "Rather not speak about that. Say, a secret for a secret?"
Jaune was all too quick to agree. So they both had things they didn't want to bring up, fair enough. He returned to eating his food so the instructors, especially Moss, wouldn't yell at him for being slow later.
Then he heard a click and a clash as he felt something warm wash over himself. Surprised, he thought, What the hell? Glancing down at himself, he saw that he was covered in soup, food, and the muck that was their dinner. Looking behind him he saw Winchester, seemingly having tripped and spilled his food all over him.
His vicious grin the only thing giving his intentions away, Winchester spoke, "Oops."
Russ stalked towards them from the corner, took one look at the situation and sighed, "What the hell happened?"
Winchester put on an innocent face, and an awfully convincing one at that, likely born from years of tossing blame, "Sorry, I tripped and spilled all my food over him."
Russ clearly wasn't buying it, "Arc?"
Jaune hesitated for a second, maybe it really was an honest mistake? Probably not, but did he want to make an enemy on the first day? His mind flashed back to Cardin, cowering didn't help him then, it only made things worse. He'd try to solve this himself, tattling to the Instructors would only come as a last resort, he decided.
"I was turned away, I guess it was."
Winchester's cruel smile was barely hidden.
Russ frowned but didn't say anything. After telling Winchester to get more food, he gave directions to Jaune about getting his uniform cleaned, then left.
Turning back to Thistle, his face was clear disappointment, "Why didn't you stand up for yourself? He clearly did that on purpose."
Jaune mulled over the question, "I will, just not with the help of the Instructors, not yet anyhow."
"You're just gonna let him walk all over you?."
Jaune shrugged, setting down his fork and leaning back to stretch, "Nah, just going to solve it my way."
Sergeant Russ lept up onto a table, "Dinner is now over! All Recruits will now go to the Barracks and wait for further instructions! We'll be assigning sections and their general duties!"
Jaune got up and put away his tray of food, following the swarm of recruits leaving the mess hall. Outside the broken moon was overhead, a wispy breeze blowing through. Jaune walked briskly across the blacktop, Thistle just behind him. Their first day had been interesting to say the least, Jaune didn't particularly enjoy getting yelled at by the Instructors, who were omnipresent, and would catch every small detail you screwed up. Reaching the barrack, Jaune leapt up the steps, entering.
Inside, he saw Moss walking around, grabbing recruits at random and calling them a section. Jaune unconsciously flinched when he saw Moss turn to him with a diabolical smile.
"Arc! Who's your partner?"
"Thistle Redwood, Warrant," Jaune replied.
"Who the fuck is h- nevermind," Moss turned to grab a few other recruits. "You, and you, grab your partners. You're all now 2 Section," Moss turned hastily away without another thought to form the other sections.
Jaune's face turned to dismay when he saw Winchester in his section. He had a friendly smile on his face, which only concealed the predatory nature of it. The dismay turned to hope, would this be a chance to try and solve their problems? Or would it make it worse? The Winchesters were a petty bunch as it seemed.
Thistle walked up behind him, having been stuck behind a traffic jam of the recruits, "Who the fu- oh."
"We're all a section now boys!" exclaimed Winchester, who reached his massive arms out and forcefully pulled everyone into a huddle. Winchester lowered his voice, "Now let's get this straight, I'm the leader here."
Jaune's opinion of Winchester was deteriorating every second he spoke. "Maybe we should get introductions in order, so what's your first name, Winchester," he said, gritting his teeth.
Winchester laughed, "Jay, Jauney boy."
"Runs in the family..." Jaune mumbled, were the entire line of Winchesters such assholes?
Jay's tone turned icy, "What did you say?"
Thistle put his hand out, trying to calm them down, "No need for a fight here guys, and remember, Moss is here."
True to his word, Moss was indeed there, with an eye out for their section. Almost asking for something to happen, anything for an excuse to PT all of them to death.
Jay turned back annoyed, "Well then, we'll get all of our Introductions done."
Jaune, Thistle, and Jay all introduced themselves. Then Jay's partner stepped forward.
"I'm Finch Gold," said the scrawny blonde haired teen, scratching his head. "I joined with Jay here, because he helped me once with something bad, and always stuck by my side. So when he joined Striker Group, I followed."
Jay merely grunted.
Looking at Finch, he and Jay looked like polar opposites. Jay was large and brawny, while Finch looked like a mouse, with thick glasses and a hand that was constantly twitching. Jaune's mind swirled, what had Jay done to earn such loyalty? Maybe he wasn't as big of a bully as he'd thought. He'd figure out later.
A man Jaune didn't recognize introduced himself, "Cedric Lilo."
It was all Cedric said before he nodded to the next person. His face looked like everyone else's, his hair a mundane brown, and just a generally boring face. The most notable thing about him was that he was forgettable. Jaune was already struggling to remember who he was, as if his face was covered by a mist that obscured his details.
Jaune was still deliberating Cedric when his partner pompously announced her name, "I'm Iris Ray! I joined because my y'know, my village was boring, and I wanted to adventure! I'm partnered with this handsome hunk over here," she nudged Cedric, raising her eyebrows at him.
Cedric grunted in negligible annoyance.
Iris laughed, and twisted her head around, her braided, purple hair flying around, "Well, he'll warm up to me eventually. Who's next?"
Jaune noticed the guys were staring at something in particular, below Iris' eyes. Looking down he saw her assets, and her hands on her impossibly tight curves. His eyes snapped up to see Iris' bemused expression, a dangerous smile painted on her face. Jaune started to internally panic, oh god was he going to be painted as a perv on his first day? It certainly didn't help that he felt the slightest of movements in his groin regions. His face flushed red, and Iris looked like she was close to bursting out laughing. How was he supposed to make it through training if he couldn't control his hormones? He'd be kicked out faster than Beacon if anything happened.
Iris turned to Jay, who hadn't taken his eyes off her. He shot her a flirty smirk, which was shot down by her death glare towards him. Thistle looked away embarrassedly, his face similar to Jaune's. Finch was fiddling with something in his hands, and paid no heed to what happened in front of him.
One of the other females in their Section spoke up, "I'm Vi Marron, and that's my little sister there, Lavender, or Lav." Vi gestured to the other girl, standing a bit back. The two girls were drastically different in height, Lavender being close to his chest level. While Vi was even a little taller than him.
"Hi," Lavender said, barely a whisper. Her hand unconsciously went to her lavender tinged hair, which was now up in a bun.
Vi smiled, her own brown, violet dyed hair up in a bun also, "She's a bit shy, but she's really nice if you get to know her, right?" Vi said, nudging her sister.
Lavender looked at her sister irate, or at least her best attempt to look irate. Jaune had to laugh a bit at the scene. Lavender spun over to him in a flash, her small stature making her expression all the funnier. Jaune thought this almost like Beacon, then tossed the thought. Beacon was the past, he had to think about now.
"What are you laughing at, Arc?" Lavender stomped her foot on the hard wooden floor. "Did the Instructors not beat you up enough already?"
Vi snorted, crossing her arms, "Be careful Arc, she's a bit feisty."
"Wh- argh!" Lavender tried to hit Vi, who effortlessly dodged the short girl.
"Hey girls, stop fighting, or maybe Moss will come over," interjected Jay, who shot a wolfish grin at Lavender. She uncomfortably stood, hand gripping her other loose arm. "Don't worry, I'm enough for him."
Everyone just stared at Jay, or rather behind him.
Jay's face changed to confusion, then realization. Spinning around revealed Moss standing there, arms crossed. Jaune had a small smile on his face that he desperately tried to hide.
"Winchester," Moss said quietly, in a deathly tone, staring Jay right in his eyes.
"Warrant," Jay tried to puff out his chest, and meet his gaze, but only withered under the weight of it.
"Remember tomorrow morning is PT," said Moss, turning away to his other duties.
Jaune had to admit, watching Jay get knocked down a peg was satisfying.
Moss leapt up onto a random footlocker, "Alright, 1 Section has duties tonight, everyone else has freetime. Lights out at 2200, reveille is at 0500."
Moss looked around to receive blank stares, "Sleep by ten and wake up is at five, understand?"
The recruits answered back with a forceful, "Yes Instructor!"
The grizzled man looked pleased, "Keep it up and we might make something out of you lot. 1 Section gather around."
The recruits dispersed to their sleeping areas, females to their side, males to the other. Curiously they were both lodged in the same building, which Jaune supposed wouldn't matter, as someone would wake up if a couple decided to get cozy with each other. Or the night sentry would catch them. Jaune walked towards his bed, settling down before deciding to find his scroll. He panickedly searched for his scroll for at least five minutes before remembering that he handed it in at the check-in. He chuckled at the thought that his friends would be blowing up his scroll with messages. He stopped laughing when he remembered the things some of them said when they found out.
Laying on his bed, he wondered what would happen after he finally became a Contractor. He always dreamt of being a Huntsman, but the life of a Contractor didn't seem as glamorous. Maybe he could become a freelance Huntsman later. His thoughts then turned to his friends, which was always at the back of his mind, always coming into his mind at the worst moment. Jaune buried his face into his hand, he didn't want to stay on bad terms with them forever! He'd have to reconcile with them sometime, but not now, maybe in a year, or more. Jaune sighed, looking around, he saw his section, his new family.
Yeah, his new family.
Jaune looked over to Thistle, "Hey, what specialty are you going?"
"That armoured reconnaissance thing they're doing, you?" replied Thistle, gathering up his toiletries to take a shower.
He was caught off guard a bit, they both were doing the reconnaissance gig? He would at least have a friend there, "Really? Me too."
"Nice, looks like we'll both have a friend when we get there," Thistle grinned, before leaving to wash the filth that had accumulated on him during the day.
Jaune got up and walked around. He chatted idly with the rest of his section mates, discoverly oddly that just about everyone had signed up for the armoured reconnaissance gig, except Cedric and Iris. Jaune thought this was something done by Moss, which he found just a bit odd. Jaune laid back in his bed and let out a breath. Talking to Cedric was like talking to a wall, except the wall talked more. Iris was more of a broken fire hydrant, spewing out more words than he could process. Why was his section the one with as many polar opposites as his family had children? Jaune left those questions for later to ponder, he really needed to go take a shower.
Before long, it was 2200, and his first day at Striker Group Basic Training ended.
Poor Jay, I'm sure everyone loves him.
My goal for now is to maintain semi-weekly updates, which should be easy with the Coronavirus stuff going around, but when school starts up again updates will probably be more scattered.
Again, please review and favourite, it means a lot to me. See ya in the next chapter.