Author's Note: I own neither RWBY nor World of Tanks

"Hey guys."

Gladys looked up from her tea to see Ruby wandering into the Bullhead, her hand raised in exuberant greeting as she continued, "I guess we got the same ride, right?"

"I should think so," Carney retorted, "Otherwise you would be in the wrong aircraft."

"We're in the right one!" Weiss shot, "No thanks to our dear leader."

Ruby chuckled awkwardly, finally moving out of the way and heading to the side of the Bullhead opposite from Gladys, her crew, and Otto- who had joined them on account of everyone else in his crew being dead. Quickly, the girl sat down on the floor and was followed quickly by the rest of her team to make their own circle. The only exception was Blake, who, before sitting down, noted, "You guys should put that away."

She indicated the tea, then sat down while Emma shot, "It's a morning cuppa. And I thought her not wanting the gun ready was bad..."

The loader cast a dark glance at Gladys, while Weiss pointed out, "We will be taking off soon, though, and I, for one, don't want to explain why there are stains from spilled tea."

"Oh, we wouldn't spill," Gladys assured, even as Otto started to reach towards the tea set. Promptly, Ribbans shot, "Don't you dare, you Kraut."

"Ah, sorry," Otto said, "I thought that we should take the advice of our peers."

"Rather stupid thought, that is," Ribbans said, and Gladys quickly corrected, "We will take the advice of our peers into consideration- however, my consideration is that having the tea remain out will be fine."

As she sipped, the rest of her crew gave their various affirmations, and a calm promptly fell over the cabin. For a little bit, things continued that way, with RWBY having their conversation and the tankers having theirs- though, notably, Otto didn't get another cup of tea. Finally, the calm was broken by a tremendous rumbling as the whole craft shook. Quickly, Gladys pressed her cup to her lips, gulping down the hot tea and doing her best to ignore the burning in her throat, eventually swallowing when the pain got too bad. The liquid passed quickly down her throat, searing it along the way, but still Gladys kept her mouth shut. Finally, the craft stabilized, and Gladys murmured, "Quite a..." she trailed off, coughing for a moment, her throat more hoarse from the temperature than refreshed from the liquid, before finally finishing, "Quite a good brew this morning."

Emma nodded, "B-Bit too hot."

Gladys nodded quietly in turn, and Ruby piped up, "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Ribbans said, "Right?"

He glanced around, receiving quiet nods from the rest of the English crew, and Otto informed, "We're all fine."

Gladys grabbed the kettle, murmuring, "Should, ah, quite like another cup."

"Get me too," Emma said, to which Gladys nodded quickly. While RWBY got to talking amongst themselves, a bit more silence passed among the Brits, broken only by the occasional sound of sipping, as they attempted to recover from their tea-induced burns by simply drinking more tea. Finally, it was broken by Yang scooting over to them and saying, "Hey, uh... sorry about, uh, killing your buddies."

While Gladys scooched away, Otto dismissed, "It is fine."

"Y-Yeah," Yang murmured, glancing down. Emma shot, "He said it's fine, now bugger off."

"U-Unless, ah, you were looking to join us," Gladys murmured, to which Yang shook her head, murmuring, "Nah," as she scooted back to her own team. Gladys let out a sigh of relief, and Ribbans noted, "Y'know, telling people they should bloody well leave might be a good thing."

"Of, ah, of course not," Gladys retorted, "We're all students, we all have a duty to be courteous to each other."

"Precisely," Weiss agreed, abruptly turning around to join in the conversation, "Now, then, if you could explain that to Ruby, especially regarding letting other students do as they will to their fellows, it would-"

"Unless you're here for tea, bugger off," Ribbans shot, and Emma agreed, "We aren't here to win your argument."

Weiss huffed and glanced at Gladys, who pointed out, "We are having tea, so if you would like to join us, you can."

The heiress huffed again, and Ruby argued, "But if someone is being bad, then we should stop them, right?"

"Why on earth would we stoop down to their level?" Weiss retorted, and Ruby retorted, "I-It'd be different."

"It'd be a conversation we aren't involved in," Ribbans shot, "Now shoo, the lot of you."

"There's not really a place to shoo," Yang pointed out, "Unless you guys have your tank being towed or something."

Gladys sighed, and Emma fumed, "I swear, if that was an option and you decided not to do it-"

"It wasn't an option," Gladys assured, then informed, "I had a, ah, debate on the matter with the captain of the vessel. He was... lively, in saying 'no'."

Emma grimaced, and Weiss, returning to the point, said, "So, you let him make that decision, even if it affected other students."

"That wasn't assault," Blake pointed out, "What we're talking about was."

"It clearly wasn't," Weiss bickered, "If you knew the local laws, you would know that."

"No, I'm pretty sure that was assault," Yang pointed out, and Ruby questioned, "Shouldn't we judge with morals?"

"Not that I want to involve myself," Otto interjected, "But yes. Laws can be made bad."

"You would know, wouldn't you," Ribbans grumbled, "Bloody SS-wanker."

Otto sighed deeply, and Weiss fumed, "The law is the law because it is right."

"It isn't, though," Blake bickered, to which Weiss retorted, "It is, as decided by those who have much more knowledge."

"As decided by a bunch of humans," Blake retorted, and Weiss retorted, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Blake sighed deeply, and Emma chastised, "It means we don't want to be a part of your stupid argument with no bloody context! Now bugger off and let us have our tea, or this bloody cabin will really be a bloody cabin!"

"Jeez," Yang murmured, "You could've just said you were confused."

"I meant that I want you to bloody well shoo!" Emma started to rant, only to be cut off by Ruby informing, "We were, ah, talking about that incident you guys stopped. You know, with Velvet?"

"The Faunus?" Otto recalled, while Ribbans grumbled, "I didn't bloody well ask."

Ignoring him, Ruby nodded, "Yeah."

Ribbans started, "I don't bloody well-"

"Wait," Emma stopped, "You mean to say that she thinks they should've just been let to do their thing?"

"Team CRDL was merely doing what they wanted during lunch, like any student," Weiss said, and Emma shot, "Now I really want you to bugger off."

"I suppose that you would hold that opinion, being as savage and disruptive as you are," Weiss said, and Gladys promptly piped up, "I should, well, quite say I'd like you to go away, too, if it, ah, helps my loader's argument."

Weiss glanced askance at the commander, and Ruby pointed out, "Didn't you not do anything?"

"Quite," Gladys said, "And I regret having stood by and done nothing."

Weiss huffed, then scooted away from the tankers, noting, "I suppose your being rude means you'll get your way, then."

Gladys sighed to herself, and she glanced down at her tea in sudden self-reflection, while Otto simply murmured, "It would seem like it."

"Hey, that reminds me," Ruby said, "Uh... none of you had guns then. Did you bring any?"

Emma nodded, "We got the Besa."

"And the rest of you?" Ruby excitedly said, "Do we finally get to see what you all have?"

"We have the Besa," Ribbans retorted. Ruby fell abruptly silent, Yang snorted, and Blake questioned, "Wait... none of you have guns... and you're going into a Grimm forest."

"I brought mine," Otto informed. Quickly, Ruby shot over, toppling over the tea set as she sped through the tankers' circle, finally stopping just in front of Otto and asking, "Can you show-"

"OI!" Ribbans fumed, "That was our tea! You absolute, incompetent, whiny, brattish chit!"

Nearby, Weiss sighed deeply, and Yang pointed out, "Well, maybe if we just talked to each other like normal people, rather than being in these weird groupings, that wouldn't've happened."

"And then you could sit next to the commander and snatch her up nice and easy, eh?" Ribbans shot. Yang sighed, and Gladys murmured, "I-It's fine, truly- I'll, ah, just see about cleaning it up, if you two could both move slightly."

"Of course," Otto nodded, scooching away. Ruby followed him quickly, asking, "So, can I see it? What's it chambered in?"

"It's a P38," Otto said, and Ruby bubbled, "Woah! Why'd you name your gun with numbers?"

-A long while later

A sigh of relief escaped Gladys' lips when she felt something solid impact the Bullhead from below. Not on the belief that they'd landed- though, maybe a bit of that- but on the belief that it would finally get Ruby to shut up.

"-come on, if you knew a version existed in a higher caliber why wouldn't you go for it?" the girl continued, proving Gladys completely wrong. The commander let out another sigh, listening as Ruby continued, without even a second's hesitation, to poke and prod at the same minutiae of detail that she'd already been asking about for far, far too long, while Carney murmured, "I believe we've landed."

Gladys quietly nodded, and Emma murmured, "Thank God."

"You're finally getting why I call her a brat, then?" Ribbans guessed, and Emma quickly shook her head, "I need a wee."

Ribbans nodded, "Suppose that's there, too."

"I'll see about finding a suitable bush once we're out," Gladys promised. Emma shook her head, "I-I'm going to just sprint, I'm not..."

The doors on the sides of the craft started to open, and the loader immediately trailed off. Gladys quietly started packing up the tea set, and neither had the commander gotten done nor the doors fully opened before Emma sprinted out. Yang promptly asked, "What's her problem?"

"Not wanting to be snatched and taken around town," Ribbans shot, to which Yang retorted, "Pretty sure she's the one of you who'd actually like the city."

"She, ah... had lady troubles," Gladys informed, "Of a rather embarrassing sort-"

Emma's moan of relief was so loud that, even relatively far away from the Bullhead, it still cut Gladys off. Yang mocked, "'Oh, deary, has your tea drinking perhaps been too much? I would be shocked if that were the case.'"

"N-Not at all," Gladys answered, "There's no such thing as too much tea."

"So you're not gonna run over there in a second?" Yang guessed, and Gladys responded, "I-I'd really rather not talk about this."

Yang shrugged, "C'mon, we all gotta go, right Rubes?"

She glanced over at her sister, who was still pestering Otto with incessant questions. The man, for his part, had fully disassembled his pistol, but seemed only half-focused on the conversation as he glanced around the cabin. Immediately, Gladys knew the cause, and began gazing around to see if she could find whatever part the loader was missing-

"And by 'go' we don't mean 'go off wherever you please to take her'," Ribbans abruptly fumed, and Gladys quickly interjected, "I'm, ah, fine. It simply is a rather uncivil thing for-"

"All students! Assemble with me!" Glynda said outside. Quickly, Gladys stood up, having by then finished packing up the kit... then, looking around, realized she didn't have a place to store it. So, she simply grabbed it up, then carried it with her as she joined everyone else in heading out of the Bullhead, and towards where the teacher was standing. Quickly, Glynda turned and started marching off, and Blake noted, "I guess it really is red."

"The forests of Forever Fall are beautiful," Glynda responded, "But you aren't here to sight-see. Professor Peaches has instructed you all to gather a jar of sap from the local trees, and though I am around to prevent you from getting overrun, you still must not let your guard down. Is that understood?"

Various affirmations were the response, as the students continued looking around at the forest. It was, to be blunt, almost garishly red, but to such an extent that it looped out of being strictly garish and into being a sort of flawed beauty. Every single thing around the students, save for themselves and the Bullheads they left behind, was red; the leaves on the trees were of a brighter red than arterial blood, the leaves on the ground preserved their cerise shading better than any autumn leaf ever could, the bark of the trees was a deep dark crimson, even the clouds and sky above seemed to be shades of a pink-ish red. It was as if a painting had become reality- a painting made by someone who had an extremely limited color palette, but a truly unlimited creative depth.

"We'll meet back up at here at four o'clock," Glynda finished, "Until then, you should do your assignment first and foremost... but try to have fun."

Various affirmations again were the response. No one was paying much attention, after all- even Gladys didn't bother hearing every word, only remembering the important bits. She was too transfixed by the sheer boldness of the red around her, the way each shade managed to distinguish itself from the others, but bleed into each other all the same, to make one whole unified atmosphere of the most brilliant rainbow of red. Perhaps the comparison to an artist isn't valid, for it wasn't red in that it seemed angry, or reminded of blood, or any sort of meaning which a truly great artist would put in their paintings. It was red for the sake of being red, for the pure joy of the color, for the way it caught the eye and demanded attention, how it stood out with any other color beside it. The forest around her wasn't beautiful, it wasn't ugly, it wasn't even truly a forest; it was red, and only red, of the purest red that had ever been, and it nothing more, nor anything less.

And, with a sigh, she finally forced herself away from staring at it, returning to the realm of banality that is the practical world, in order to ask, "Emma, could you be a dear and..."

She trailed off, realizing her loader wasn't with her, then corrected, "Ah, Otto, I don't suppose you would mind getting a jar for each of us?"

"Ah... of course," Otto said, tearing his gaze away from the delicately perfect swirls of scarlet and cherry everything, "I... Jaune had them, ja?"

"Yes," Gladys nodded, "I believe so."

Otto nodded, then headed off, and Gladys sighed, then turned and watched as the Bullheads departed. A bit after that, Emma abruptly came out from the bushes, the red of her coat visible from all the others for how much less perfect it was. It was perhaps the most striking thing that Gladys had ever seen, more than a shot from a KV-2, more than a Smasher slinging HEAT around, more even than shots fired from her own FV215. As the loader approached, the movement of the inferior red within the sea of its better made the effect only more obvious- it seemed all at once silly and disrespectful to even dare call it red, when a true and pure example of red was around. Still, though, Gladys kept it to herself, having too much pride in how much better even the imitation red looked compared to many other things she'd seen.

"Did I keep you waiting?" Emma asked, and Gladys shook her head, "We were waiting on-"

"Finally," Ribbans said, swiftly moving past, "Only noticed I was dying for a piss when you spoke up."

Gladys sighed, and Emma murmured, "Sorry for taking so long, had a lot to get out."

Gladys nodded, and Emma waited a moment for Ribbans to completely disappear, then added, "And... b-between girls, it felt so good I forgot to get my knickers down."

"I... ah... I'm not, ah, g-giving you mine, i-if that's what you're supposing to ask," Gladys said, and Emma shrugged, "Needed to admit it to someone."

Gladys nodded quietly, and the two waited for a bit before Ribbans finally returned. Upon the gunner walking back into view, Gladys inquired, "Ah, Carney, I suppose you'll be wanting to go next?"

The driver pried himself away from gazing at the vermilion brilliance around him, and said, "Are you quite sure you wouldn't like to go first?"

"Yes," Gladys nodded, and Carney nodded, "I suppose I shall, then."

And so, he promptly headed off into the bushes, while Ribbans asked, "Are you not going to wee again?"

Gladys murmured, "I have, ah, n-no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, what are you on about?" Emma said, and Ribbans explained, "You haven't noticed that she never uses the bushes?"

Emma paused, then shook her head, "I hadn't."

"I, ah, would rather not talk more about this," Gladys said, to which Emma nodded, "Right. So, then, do you suppose there are any babbling brooks about here?"

Gladys sighed quietly, and Ribbans noted, "Then you really won't piss in a bush?"

"It's unladylike," Gladys pointed out, and Emma questioned, "And pissing in a shell is?"

"That is part of being a tanker," Gladys said, "Something I'm rather proud of. Squatting amongst vegetation most certainly isn't."

Emma shrugged, and Ribbans noted, "Going to take a lot of... what's the Besa? Seven millimeter?"

"More like eight," Emma shrugged, "Not enough to wee in."

"I will be fine," Gladys insisted, "Now, could we please talk about something less crude and uncivilized?"

There was a brief pause. Finally, Otto came back, bearing five jars, and Gladys said, "Ah, Otto, good work. Emma, if you wouldn't mind taking those from him?"

"He has it handled," Emma retorted, and Ribbans pointed out, "Not sure how you girls piss, but our cannons take two hands to aim."

Emma giggled, "You think it counts as a cannon..."

"I'm fine," Otto informed, and Gladys agreed, "I was asking so that Emma could hand them off to us, because I really would rather stop talking about those sorts of private matters."

"We can just grab 'em ourselves," Ribbans pointed out, demonstrating what he meant as he did. Quickly, he added, "Don't suppose you'll consider using one of these?"

"We have to use them," Otto pointed out, while Gladys grabbed one of the jars, setting it precariously on top of the tea set. Emma informed, "We were just talking about how commander's decided she'd rather wee her knickers than water a bush."

"I most certainly won't do that," Gladys shot, and Emma pointed out, "Got another few hours and a return trip."

Gladys grimaced slightly, and Otto realized, "Ah, pee. If you could take these so I may go."

Ribbans nodded and took the rest, and Otto promptly scampered off. Finally, Carney returned, and grabbed one of the jars from Ribbans while asking, "By the by... how does one extract sap from a tree?"

A long bit of silence passed after that, before Gladys admitted, "I'm not quite sure."

"Well... what if you... took the bark and... let it dissolve?" Emma mumbled, "Is that sap?"

"Wood floats, doesn't dissolve," Ribbans pointed out, and Emma bickered, "Alright, how're we getting sap, then?"

"Well I wouldn't know," Ribbans retorted. Finally, Carney came back into view, just as Ribbans was finishing, "I was the one who asked, wasn't I?"

"And I'm the one who answered," Emma responded, and Gladys interjected, "This isn't really going anywhere."

"Might I suggest asking our peers?" Carney said, and Ribbans nodded, "I guess we are taking stupid ideas, given Emma's plan."

"Who would even know?" Gladys questioned, then murmured, "Why is sap-collecting a part of a school..."

Emma shrugged, "Infantry are weird."

Gladys sighed, then nodded and informed, "Well, then... as soon as Otto gets back, we'll head off and find where everyone else went."

Ribbans glanced around, then murmured, "They have rather abandoned us, haven't they?"

"You were both being quite rude, and telling them to shoo away," Gladys pointed out, "I should think they were quite happy to finally manage it."

Emma sighed, and Ribbans pointed out, "You also told the girl that you didn't want her about."

"I merely attempted to separate ourselves from a bigot," Gladys retorted, "You both were clamoring for her to leave before that."

Emma huffed, and Ribbans simply shrugged in response, to which Gladys let out an exasperated sigh. Finally, Otto returned, and Gladys asked, "Ah, by the by, I don't suppose you saw any of the schoolchildren while you were out and about?"

The loader shook his head, and Emma questioned, "Did you think he'd gone out his way to find people while his sausage was out?"

"It was better than not asking," Gladys retorted, "As now we simply have to wander aimlessly."

-Elsewhere and a while later

"Come on, Jauney boy," Cardin teased, "You know what you have to do."

Jaune clenched his teeth in indecision, glancing firstly at Pyrrha, and the rest of his team. They had all gathered in a little clearing, along with team RWBY, going about their business as peacefully as any group which included Nora could do. A stack of jars, filled with sap, stood nearby, speaking volumes to the efficiency of their labor. They were going on well enough without him...

...and so his eyes darted to the also-filled jar of sap in his hand, as his mind continued to ponder the task at hand. Namely, he was supposed to throw the jar into that peaceful mass and disturb it. He, the leader of his team, was supposed to be the one to disrupt them, on the one occasion he'd seen where they were actually working as a team. It was a grim reality, made only worse by the fact that his not being there seemed, to him, to be part of why they were working well. In his mind, Jaune knew that throwing the jar at his team would only serve to prove that he was holding them back, and that he didn't belong at-

"Ah, lovely, we've finally managed to find another group."

-and Jaune's train of thought promptly came to a screeching, disastrous halt- more of a crash, really- as the situation was wholly and entirely interrupted by someone new arriving. Quickly, he turned around to see the tankers approaching, the red coats of the English tankers being just a bit too bold to be camouflage against the other red around, and Otto's black uniform standing out like a sore thumb. Cardin taunted, "Do you guys want me to kill you again?"

"N-No," Gladys quickly said, "Of, ah, of course not. We were simply wondering how, exactly, to go about collecting sap."

Cardin sniffed, then shot, "We're doing something else. Go talk to those losers if you want to be a teacher's pet."

He pointed away, and Ribbans pointed out, "What the bloody hell else are you doing?"

"We're here to collect sap," Emma agreed, and Jaune said, "J-Just go, or he'll-"

Cardin abruptly stepped in front of him, explaining, "My buddy Jaune and I were gonna play a prank. That's all you get to know."

"Oh," Gladys said, "Well, ah, I would ask that you try not to get us involved."

And with that, the commander walked off, followed by the rest of the tankers, all having accepted Cardin's explanation. And as the bully turned towards Jaune, the smaller boy found himself considering that explanation, too. He had, after all, been the one to collect the wasps they were going to release; he knew they hurt, but he also knew that they did little more.

"Now, get back to it," Cardin shot, and for the briefest of moments, Jaune found himself thinking that he should just do what he was told. If he tried to be a hero, and to prove he belonged, he knew Cardin would just prove that he didn't belong in Beacon. But for as low a cost as a slightly-harmful practical joke, Jaune could stay just a little longer. So, Jaune hefted the jar, preparing to throw, and stared at his target...

...he stared for a long moment, his brain reeling as fast as it ever had as it flip-flopped one final time. Finally, he realized that, even if it got out that he didn't have the scores that everyone else did, it didn't matter. What mattered was the decisions he made; and if he decided to take the easy way out, he was proving that he shouldn't be a huntsman. And so, Jaune quickly turned, and threw the jar at Cardin. The glass made contact with the larger boy's heavy steel armor, and shattered in an instant, letting the sap explode outwards.

And as Jaune looked up from Cardin's chest, and into the bully's smirking- not grimacing as expected, but smirking, with the joy of getting to beat someone- Jaune felt fear, but not regret.

Author's Note: I know it's rather funny to be bringing this up in this chapter, of all chapters- one of the few recent ones to not feature any German dialogue- but I shall nevertheless say here that I recently received some feedback on how I handled the language difference, and so wanted to address it. Specifically, I was told, rather bluntly, that I should include some translation, which I actually consider a fair request. As such, I elected to address it as soon as possible.

I shall firstly admit that the German dialogue being in German stems from my inexperience- namely, I don't really know how to handle separate languages. I defaulted to just putting in the second language- and here I'll note that I don't actually speak German, I just use Google Translate. I had considered using some sort of grammatical marking to indicate 'here's where they're speaking German', but I've always found it irritating to need a key in order to read a story, and so decided against it.

However, I can't ignore that some people, evidently, find it more irritating to have to use Google Translate. So, simply put, I would like to humbly request a bit more feedback, in order to finalize on a solution which will, hopefully, be to everyone's satisfaction. Namely, should I continue treating German dialogue in the same way I always have, stop using German altogether, or have some sort of marker for when dialogue that's written in English should be read as spoken in German?