Operation Forging Steel

by licklicklick123

An American General goes to a new world with the simple task of setting up a military base, but this task doesn't seem to be so simple, when creatures of the dark, otherworldly human life, terrorism, and possible war come into play.

15. Cooperwick Sojourn

Command Center, MOB Juno

0917 hours

The squeaking of the metal door alerted Kirkman to someone entering the room. He looked up from the pile of paperwork he had been working on.

Closing the door behind him, the man that came through was an older gentleman, African-American, in his late 50s. wearing a business suit while holding a hat in his hand, coupled with his tall stature and tired looks, he emanated the aura of an experienced professional.

This was Elijah King, the man the CIA recently sent to be the Division Chief of Remnant. Of course, this title meant very little as Yankee team and a few others were the only CIA assets on Remnant at the moment. He had done much work with the CIA, he was the former Division Chief of Russia and Europe until a few years ago when he temporarily retired.

"What brings you here, Elijah?"

"Well since I'm off to Cooperwick soon, I decided to stop by." As he spoke, Elijah walked paced around the office, looking at the various memorabilia within the room.

Kirkman knew better than to think this was just to say hi.

"What actually brings you here?"

Elijah stopped walking; he brought his focus onto a particular picture of Kirkman's old company during the Gulf War. A picture of them all holding their guns, smiling as rows and rows of tanks and self-propelled artillery were behind them.

"Oh, nothing much." He finally looked at Kirkman. "Just wanted to talk,"

The General gestured to the seat in front of his desk, Elijah obliged, taking a seat.

He leaned back "I think you're lacking in the PR department."

"Isn't that what you're here to fix?"

"No, I'm here to make sure we're able to establish various corporations and help oversee the training of a paramilitary force. PR was, or is, supposed to be your job. And I think you're not doing very good at it."

That stung a little, but Kirkman knew that this was true, but he was no expert on public relations.

"What exactly is wrong with the PR strategy so far?"

"Don't let the numbers fool you, an okay amount of natives might like you but right now you're only appealing to… a certain type of native."

Kirkman knew exactly what he was saying. Currently the US had only been popular with people who held nothing but hatred for the White Fang… and maybe there were a few racists.

"It can't really be helped."

"No, it can, you see by only doing things like killing terrorists and all those interviews which are very obvious shows of strength, you're making yourself a very polarizing figure when you should have elements that attract both sides. Since if you fuck up, ah excuse my language. Forget I'm not back in Georgia." He chuckled.

"It's alright, continue."

"Basically, you want people from everywhere to like you, racists, non-racists, faunus, humans, everybody. that way if you make one group unhappy you still got many people to back you up."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"Lots of ways actually."

He looked at the ashtray on Kirkman's desk that had been left by Benjamin, Elijah pulled it closer to himself before pulling out a cigar from his jacket, snipping the end and lighting it up. He took a huff before continuing.

"But the option that would be easiest for you at the moment would be to play the sympathy card."

"We already tried that, we made sure to get the media to know that we did this cause a marine squad was ambushed for no reason."

"Your mistake was not putting a face on it."

"What?"

Elijah tapped the edge of the cigar on the ashtray. "When you gave info to the media, you should've put a face on the people who were lost. Johnson, Boetticher, and Redding if I'm not mistaken. You should've shown pictures of them while they were alive, add a couple personal things, they have a wife? Kids? It's hard to sympathize with someone when you don't have a face to ah… actualize the sympathy on."

He made a good point, but Kirkman felt it was a bit morally dubious to take advantage of their deaths in that way.

"I already know what you're thinking, bit scummy, but it is how it is with PR, I suggest next time this is brought up by news media, you take my advice, give them pictures of the three, basic personal info, maybe even a comment or two from their living squad mates."

Kirkman nodded. "What else?"

"Well that's the only option easily available to you at the moment, the rest is damage control."

"Damage control?"

"Yes, I don't think I even have to mention how much of a disaster those kids getting hit was."

Ah yes, Team RWBY and Professor Oobleck's unfortunate run-in with the artillery and Auroras. The news of that almost completely overshadowed all the other news on the Mountain Glenn attack on most Remnant media.

"Isn't stating that it was accidental pretty much all the damage control we can do?"

"I'm not talking about that kind of damage control; I'm talking about rehabilitating our image."

"In what way?"

As Elijah finished up the rest of his cigar, he looked back at the picture of Kirkman's squad during the Gulf War.

"You know what I like the most about those kinds of pictures?"

Kirkman didn't see how this was relevant to what they were talking about, but he conceded nonetheless. "What?"

"It shows camaraderie, the kind you can only get from training and fighting side-by-side with someone, it's a human quality. That's what you show the world. Not just news of us killing terrorists, show them that we're human too that we have the ability to show compassion. And we have the ability to use that compassion, try to do some things that help, I know you're protecting a bunch of villages from grimm right now, maybe show that."

There was something about the way Elijah spoke of compassion that sounded so pragmatic, it was as if he only truly cared about their image.

"Why don't you take over PR then? You seem to be really good at it." This was a serious inquiry by Kirkman.

Elijah gave a slight chuckle "I would if I could, unfortunately we don't exactly got many assets down here and the ones we do are busy doing things for the Redwood initiative, and remember we're not here for political or public espionage… yet. So until we get more officers set up over here, you're our best bet, you got a Cyber team here anyway. You have the capabilities, just not the know-how. But I'm sure you'll learn the longer you're here."

"I'll do my best." Kirkman took his words in.

Elijah promptly stood up "Alright, I have a flight to Cooperwick to catch. I hear the Green Berets are about to get there along with the help I requested."

Kirkman stood up too. "I'll be going with you; I think it's best I speak to some of these men myself."

"Good idea."

They then shook each other's hands as they left the office.

---

"…What?" A wide-eyed Blake asked Sun.

"We told them not to do it, but they did, they never listen." Scarlet, Sun's teammate shook his head in light disappointment. SSSN stood there in the middle of Team RWBY's dorm room, after having told them the shocking thing that Sun and Neptune had done.

"You signed up for some sort of program with the Americans?" Weiss repeated in an astounded tone

"K-kinda." Sun scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile, not getting the reaction he was expecting from Team RWBY. All of whom were giving them angry looks minus Ruby and Yang who looked more confused than anything.

"It's complicated." Neptune insisted in a similar nervous tone.

"How is it complicated?!" Weiss shouted.

The two in question scanned the room only to find nobody looked particularly pleased with them, maybe they should have thought it through, that of course the team that was attacked by the Americans would not be happy with them signing up for something involving them.

"Why would you join them?" Blakes voice was shaky, a mix of anger and betrayal.

It was here that Sun realized his mistake with explaining what happened "Wait, no, we didn't sign up to join them, we signed up to spy on them." He said enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Neptune agreed.

It was then that the whole room gave them unimpressed looks.

Blake's eye twitched "…What?"

"Y- Yeah." Sun responded. Noticing the many glares he and Neptune were now getting, he continued "Look, it's some sort of program they're doing in a couple villages. The Team was doing some training in the forest near this place called Birch. We did it cause all the training centers were booked up then some of those weird American bullheads landed at the village. We thought this was weird so we checked it out"

At this the confused and angry looks of RWBY switched into perplexed ones.

"Wait, you said this was in Birch, right?" Blake asked.

"Yeah."

"Last I heard there was already an American presence there. If you've been there before then why would this be different?"

"We saw soldiers the last time, but these guys from those bullheads were different, they were wearing suits and these really cool sunglasses just like you see in those Spruce Willis movies."

"Yeah and a few of them were carrying these big briefcases."

In all the research Blake had done on the United States, she had never heard of these men in suits and sunglasses like Sun was describing.

"What happened next?" Ruby timidly asked.

"Neptune and I asked the guy in a suit what it was about and they said they wanted to train former village militia."

The feline faunus tilted her head in response "But you're not former village militia."

"Yeah, but we pretended to be! We got the applications, said we were both from Birch, join dates, blah blah blah, we hand them back, they take a picture of us and say we'll get a letter in a week."

"And we got a letter saying we got accepted and to meet back at Birch in two days. Which is… Today" Neptune added.

"Wait…" The Schnee was perplexed "What address did you put down?"

"Beacon!" The enthusiasm did not leave Neptune's voice.

Everyone collectively slapped their palms on their faces.

"Wh- Why? Oh -oh…" The two then realized their mistake.

"But you two still got the letter to go there." Yang piled on.

"That makes no sense! How did they not find out?!" Blake seriously didn't know what to feel at this point.

The two in question then shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe they thought we just moved near Beacon or something."

Blake's palm didn't leave her face, perhaps the Americans weren't as smart as she thought. That or they were desperate enough to train people to ignore it.

"So I was thinking that you guys tag along."

"No way!" Weiss spoke for everyone else "Even if we wanted to, we didn't apply for it like you three did!

"No, not train, but to spy on us spying, and I don't know… help us fight our way out if things go south?"

"The answer is still no. In fact, you two shouldn't even go there, it's not only senseless but also very dangerous." Weiss gave a genuinely worried look, particularly to Neptune.

Yang jumped down from her bunk to properly face the two "Weiss is right guys, this is kinda dumb, you should just back off."

Ruby then suddenly sprung up "I think we should do it!"

Everyone stared wide eyed at both Ruby and what she had just proclaimed.

"Think about it, we've done this kind of thing before, remember?" She recalled to when the same Teams investigated the White Fang months ago.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we should do it again, in an American base no less, they know who we are." Weiss Interjected.

The Americans had seen them, after all they were confined at their base in Cooperwick for over a day.

"Yeah and the White Fang didn't know who Blake was when her and Sun snuck in."

Weiss opened her mouth to speak but couldn't think of a good retort.

"And Blake." Blake then looked to her young leader. "Didn't you say that you always thought those news interviews in Cooperwick were bull…" She cut herself off.

"Bullshit." Her sister ended up continuing for her.

"Yeah! That, maybe while Sun and Neptune are training or whatever in Birch, we can look around there and see what people actually think of the Americans. We don't have to go near any of the soldiers so maybe we won't be recognized, we'll just ask the people. And even if they do recognize us, we're not really doing anything wrong by just coming into the village and talking to people."

Weiss then started to understand Ruby's side but was still skeptical.

Blake deep down really wanted to do this upon hearing Ruby's arguments, she would finally have an opportunity to see the Americans up close. Well up close while she wasn't incapacitated on a medical bed. The most she saw while she was in that base was the infirmary and the interior of the Bullhead the Americans put her into before they were given back to Beacon, as well as the slight view of the base she got while looking out the window. The same went for everyone else.

"So, what do you guys think?" Sun asked.

Scarlet and Sage were rather surprised at the fact that everyone seemed to warm up to the idea, that to them this still seemed to be a bad plan cooked up by their team leader and rowdy teammate.

"I'm in." The reaper in red replied.

"Well if Ruby's in, then I am too. Can't leave my lil' sis behind." She gave Ruby a wink.

"I'm in" Blake said, repeating what Ruby said. "I think we can do some good with this."

Weiss clicked her tongue in light annoyance "Well the rest of you are doing it then I shall too." Then she too was hit by the art of peer pressure.

The six then started to discuss different plans and approaches, all while the Scarlet and Sage stood dumbfounded.

---

"You gotta be shitting me dude." Private Colt Ainsley stared at the picture on the phone that his squad mate held up in front of his face

Private Tyrell Griffin gave a doubting face to his fellow private "What? You're telling me you wouldn't tap that?"

"I don't fuck cartoons, Ty."

"She's a pretty hot one though. And she's not a 'cartoon', she's an anime character."

Indeed, the caricature of a well-endowed blonde woman on the phone screen of his friend did boast almost all the factors he would find attractive in a woman… If she weren't cartoon, or anime as his friend snidely told him

Colt gave a deadpan face "It's a fucking cartoon"

"And? Don't call her an 'it'. She is my waifu." Said Ty with all the seriousness in the world.

Colt's face held nothing but ridicule, he stifled a laugh "How the fuck did you graduate high school?"

Ty pulled back his phone "Hey, I'll have you know that when I get back home, I'm going to MIT."

"Pssshh, like you could get into MIT- "They were interrupted by banging from the roof of the Humvee.

"Can you both shut up down there! I can hear you from up here." The gunner, Corporal Andrew Jones banged on the roof a few more times.

"Aw come on! Doesn't look like sarge gives a damn! Do you, sarge?" Ty referred to Sergeant Bennet Smith who was driving the vehicle.

"Actually, I do, private, remember, we're meeting Army Special Forces at Cooperwick. You'll wanna make good with these guys, I mean they're Green Berets, these are people you want to impress, and talking about whether or not you want to have sex with cartoons isn't going to help."

This quieted down the two privates.

"For the record I said that I don't want to have sex with- "

"I don't care."

The team, along with the rest of their squad, was in a convoy, about to meet a group of Green Berets in Cooperwick, they were there because of something about them training militias from towns around the continent.

"If you ask me, training a bunch of aliens and giving them our equipment isn't gonna end well, look what happened last time we did something like that. General Kirkman's usually pretty smart but I don't know about this one." Colt voiced his disagreement.

"First, they aren't aliens, they're natives, second this isn't something we a have a choice on, this is coming from all the way up, and I'm sure they've learned their lesson, Kirkman was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, he knows the consequences of giving randos guns and looking the other way."

That mistake had been done by many previous leaders of the US, and it had caused many of the problems they saw today, they hoped that Kirkman saw that and would be making the necessary adjustments to make sure they did not turn out like all those previous armed groups.

They then heard some chatter on the Sergeant's radio.

"Yeah?" Smith responded.

The radio made a beep before it started stating something inaudible to those in the back.

Smith switched off the radio. "It's Craigs." The sergeant stated the name of the squad commander who was in the Humvee at the front of the convoy.

"What'd he say?" Cole asked.

"He just got new orders from base, says he's gonna tell us once we get to Cooperwick."

Colt collapsed further onto his seat "Great, let me guess, more grunt work."

Right before the Sergeant could make a retort, Ty jumped in.

"Bitch, where the hell you think you are? You been doing grunt work since you enlisted, dumbass."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit, after that whole Mountain Glenn thing, things have been pretty cushy up at Juno."

The Sergeant decided to answer "Yeah, well Kirkman probably wants to get a couple more big operations done before this whole place is announced to the public, heard that's in a few weeks."

Colt sat back up "Honestly I can't wait, maybe they can finally set up shops at our bases, I kinda miss the Burger King at Kostanav."

"Heh, remember that PX that sold plasma screens and PS4s for cheap? That was the shit." Ty reminisced fondly.

"Yep, still pissed they wouldn't let us take them with us here, I paid for those god damn it."

Ty laughed at his friend's frustration "Yeah, well the Colonel did say they're gonna let us have them again soon enough."

"Quiet, we're coming up on Cooperwick."

And just as soon did the Sergeant say that did everyone quiet down. The checkpoint at Cooperwick was ahead of them.

The marine at the checkpoint spoke shortly with the Smith before letting them in. Cooperwick welcomed them with the sights of the lively town filled with happy citizens strolling down the, some staring at the American convoy as it drove down the road towards the FOB.

The four Americans within all stared in varying levels of awe at the people of Cooperwick,

This would be the first time any of them would actually see Remnant natives who weren't terrorist prisoners at MOB Juno.

"Whoa." Ty commented, his eyes drifting in particular to a woman he found rather attractive with fluffy fox ears and flowing white hair, being escorted? To a building by marines. Just as soon as Ty saw the woman did he start almost squealing out of joy.

"Chill the fuck out dude." His friend called out.

"How can I? I mean this is it bro! I finally get to live my fantasies! 'Specially since Sarge said we'd be here awhile!" He pumped his fist in the air once more as his eyes darted to another woman, this one with a lion's tail.

"(COMMS) You're fuckin' creepy, man." He heard the voice of one of his squad mates in the Humvee behind them come out the open radio.

Ty picked up the radio with a cheeky smile "Come on, Teddy, I know you thinkin' the same thing as me, you're only saying that cause Lily is sitting right next to you." The lack of response gave Ty his answer. The radio crackled shut as he himself cackled.

In the front seat, Smith sighed at the antics of his subordinates.

Ty went back to fiddling on his phone. Filming from behind the window, the town's sights.

Its roads were narrow, this town was never built for vehicles to be passing through it after all, but the citizens seemed to be used at this point to be traveling on the sides of the already small roads.

The convoy made a few turns as they started getting closer to the base.

They heard their corporal on the gun bang on the Humvee's roof "Sergeant, watch out for the pothole!"

"WHOA!" Smith hit the brakes, causing Ty to drop his phone.

"Aw, what the hell?!" He said to no one in particular as his phone hit the floor, he picked it up, checking for damage, seeing none, he let out a relieved sigh and looked at his leader. "What pothole?"

At this, those in the vehicle looked outside to see a large pothole near the side of the road. Surrounding it were a fireteam's worth of Marines covering it up in wet concrete. One of the marines approached the car, a corporal by the looks of it.

Smith opened the door wide.

"What's going on?" He asked the marine.

"Just doing some road maintenance, whole town's roads are run-down and we just started fixing em' up now, you guys new here?"

Smith gave the marine a nod. "Yeah, we're supposed to be leading this convoy to base." He pointed his hand towards the five Humvees behind him."

"Yeah, well sorry, but this part of the road is closed down until the cement dries up, it's quick-dry though, shouldn't take more than an hour or two, you boys can come back around and park near where the MPs hang out and wait."

Smith let out an annoyed breath, he clicked his tongue. "Yeah, alright." He waved to the marine as he closed the door.

He picked up the radio. "Staff Sergeant."

"(COMMS) Yep?"

"Got a bit of a situation, looks like they're doing maintenance and it won't be done for a while, think this is the only road heading to base too."

"(COMMS) The hell? You'd think HQ would tell us."

"Yeah, well when has HQ ever not been a pain in the ass? He said we can wait near where the MPs hang out, should I ask for directions?"

"(COMMS) Damn." He sighed "We're gonna have to make the Berets wait. Yeah, go ahead"

And so, the Army squad waited.

---

Team RWBY walked down the paved road leading to the village of Birch. The four of them trailed ten yards behind Sun and Neptune, not wanting to look like they were associated with them.

The four were dressed in unusual garbs, wearing hooded cloaks and scarves to mask their faces.

They then reached the village, not marked by any entrance, gate or wall, just the simple appearance of houses, and a large wooden sign by the road reading: 'BIRCH'.

The group glanced at their surroundings, taking note of anything peculiar they saw. Blake took note in particular of the lack of 'No Faunus' signs on any of the businesses.

This wouldn't be the first time they were in a frontier village, so none of what they saw was particularly intriguing, aside from the aforementioned lack of the usual anti-faunus texts on the businesses.

They kept on following Sun and Neptune who both claimed they remember where they had first met the Americans, and the streets got more and more crowded as they went, hopefully indicating that they were going the right way.

So far, they had not seen any Americans, no soldiers, vehicles, or even symbols.

"Pssst. Hey." Ruby whispered, getting the attention of her teammates. "Look." She pointed towards four men talking amongst themselves on a sidewalk outside a shop.

The four were dressed in the usual uniform of American soldiers, holding their guns and simply chatting. The people seemed to pay no mind to them, almost as if they had gotten used to them at this point.

This gave them confirmation that at the very least they were in a town with an American presence.

The four hurriedly hid their faces as they got closer to where the soldiers were. Weiss adjusted her scarf to go all the way up to her nose. Ruby pulled the hood on her cloak deeper over her face. Yang and Blake too, were wearing scarves that hid their faces.

This wasn't very strange as it was nearing the end of winter and it was still quite cold, so a group of girls wearing scarves and cloaks wasn't entirely out of the ordinary.

The long road finally ended at the town square, or at least what appeared to be the town square; it was a large open area, with many people within.

The four looked around them. The scene that surrounded them was strange. Children hugging their mothers or fathers, some in tears. Men and women locking lips with their significant others. Now this normally wouldn't be strange in any other context, but this was happening all around them, almost every person was doing this in some manner.

They could even hear goodbyes and wishes of safety.

"Why are they saying goodbye?" Yang asked. Nobody answered

Many thoughts ran through their heads, Blake's imagination in particular ran wild with assumptions of forced labor, much like the SDC mines. This was a scene she had grown all too familiar with.

"Guys…" They almost jumped in surprise. While they were distracted looking at the many goodbyes happening around them, Sun and Neptune had approached them, catching them off-guard.

"What are you doing? We're not supposed to be seen with each other!" Blake whispered angrily.

"Yeah I don't think anybody's watching." Neptune said as he looked around.

"Scratch that." Blake shook her head "Why is everyone saying goodbye to each other."

"I don't know either, I thought maybe you heard something since you know." Sun pointed to the top of his head in reference to Blake's cat ears."

Blake gave Sun an unimpressed face "No, it's hard to focus with so many people talking, and when I'm trying to hear everything at once it becomes one big mess."

"Sun! There're the guys!" Neptune pointed to their left.

There was a wooden stall, two men in suits behind them. A small line in front of it.

Yang gave a whistle. "These guys know how to dress.

"Alright, we're off, wish us luck." Sun and Neptune then walked off.

"Stay safe!" Blake whispered.

"Good luck!" Ruby shouted, garnering many stares from her teammates "What? Everyone else is saying it, I don't think I'm being suspicious." She whispered this time.

Weiss rolled her eyes "You still have to be cautious."

Yang then turned to Blake "Can you try and hear them?"

"Maybe if we get closer." She responded

"We can blend in." Ruby said, pointing towards a group of people looking at the very stall Sun and Neptune were in the line of.

The four slowly approached the crowd which was a mere few yards away from the stall. The close vicinity to presumed assets of the United States worried them, but it seemed they had not been noticed yet.

Sun and Neptune were next in line, Neptune pulled out a set of papers from under his coat. The woman ahead of them in the line then moved away.

They went up to the men in suits. Blake focused in, trying to tune out the conversations of everyone else.

Neptune handed Sun his papers as they started to speak with the men in suits.

"What are they saying?" Weiss asked.

"Quiet."

One of the men grabbed both their papers, taking a quick look at it, before handing it to the other man. He spoke.

"You're late." Blake dictated right after the man spoke

Sun seemed to nervously chuckle, scratching the back of his head before saying "Sorry."

The second man stamped something onto both their papers.

"Doesn't matter, behind that house over there are three trucks, hand these to the officer in charge, he'll be wearing a cap, he'll show you which truck to head into, it'll take you to Cooperwick." The man then handed both Sun and Neptune their papers.

"C-Cooperwick?" Sun managed to scramble out

"Yeah, didn't you read the contract you signed?"

"Of course, we did!" He nervously laughed once again.

"Good, then you know, you're gonna be sent off there for the duration of the program. Go ahead and say your goodbyes, you have about…" He checked his watch "Eight minutes till departure."

The two then silently walked off, as the next persons in line went up to the stall. They walked to Team RWBY, ignoring the fact that they were not supposed to be seen with each other. But given what they had just learned, they really didn't care for the rules at this point.

But they didn't want to be heard still, Ruby had them move to a nearby alleyway that looked empty.

"You guys hear that."

"Yes…" Blake gave a deadpan stare to both boys.

Weiss stomped towards the two "You didn't read your contract?!"

"We did! I swear! But… Just the first page." Neptune said the last part under his breath.

Almost the whole team collectively slapped the palm of their hands onto their faces.

"So what now?" Yang asked.

"We keep going." A determined Sun stated.

Blake's previously irritated demeanor was replaced by bafflement "What?!"

"I said we keep going, pretty much nothing changed, we're just going someplace else."

"A place we know nothing about! At least this place is near Vale and an airship depot. Cooperwick is farther away and…" She looked around her, making sure no American was listening in "And probably crawling with soldiers doing who knows what." She said in a lower voice.

"It's fine we can handle ourselves, and it's just us at risk, you guys just have to hang around in the city and ask. And if things go wrong, we can just escape, how hard can it be? Look at this place. Shouldn't be too hard to just walk away." Sun said noting the very few American soldiers they had seen when they entered the village.

Blake breathed in "Alright, but I don't think we'll be allowed in the trucks, so we'll have to walk there."

"Good thing we brought our weapons!" Ruby grinned while showing off Crescent Rose which she had hidden under her cape.

"And remember, we have to be back before Monday." Weiss told them, receiving a nod from everyone else.

"Are you both sure you can do this?" Blake genuinely asked both Sun and Neptune.

"Yeah." Simply said Neptune

Sun nodded his head and pulled out his scroll "I'll send you guys a message when we get there."

"Alright."

"Time to wrap up everyone!" They heard a distant voice shout.

"That's our signal." Said Neptune.

---

The convoy continued driving down the road, to the FOB, they had parked near an inside-town outpost and ended up waiting hours before the same Marine corporal came up to them and told them the concrete was properly set and dry.

Eventually they came upon their second checkpoint of the day, this one clearly more secure than the last one given that it was of course the one and only checkpoint within Cooperwick that led directly to the United States' one and only FOB on the planet, this time it was fellow Army soldiers who greeted them. They were let in and were once again on their way.

They continued to follow the vehicles ahead of them until they reached their stop. Smith was the first to exit the vehicle, then followed the rest of his team, everyone else from their small convoy also exited their rides.

"Holy shit." Something had caught Corporal Andrew's eye, a man, a very familiar looking man.

It seemed as though the others caught him too "Is that General Kirkman?" Ty asked.

Indeed, General Kirkman was right there, talking to the head of Operations at Cooperwick.

"Smith!"

Their line of thought was cut though by the approaching Staff Sergeant Matthew Craigs, the rest of their squad following behind him, while a group of Green Berets were huddled in their own circle near the Humvees behind them.

"Sir?"

"We got new orders."

"Yeah, you told me."

The squad of Nine soldiers then huddled around Craigs.

"Looks like we're gonna stay here in Cooperwick awhile."

"Yeah, we're gonna help unload the supplies the Berets brought with them, so what, that's like a day, right?"

As they said this, Kirkman seemed to approach the group of Green Berets and started speaking to them.

"Not just that, we're staying here for a while longer. We're gonna help them train the natives."

This came as a shock to everyone who wasn't in Sergeant Craigs' Humvee.

"What?" Smith's voice had a hint of annoyance.

"Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either, but hey, orders are orders, they want us to follow whatever the ODA's captain wants us to do."

"And that is?"

"Don't know yet, we'll have to wait for- "Craigs then noticed the approaching General Kirkman. "Attention!" He shouted.

All Nine men and women of the squad then stood straight, in a line, as the General walked to them.

"Stand easy, fellas." The General said in a friendly yet firm voice. "I just wanted to apologize for the sudden change in plans, I know that you all likely had your own business back at Juno, believe me your Captain wasn't very happy letting you go."

"Not a problem sir, we're always happy to serve." Said the Staff Sergeant in a professional manner.

The General chuckled and patted the man on the shoulder. "Now I know that's just a lie. Please, introduce me to your squad." The sergeant responded with an uneasy laugh.

Craigs was caught off guard, not expecting to be asked this, he still answered nonetheless. He gave the names of each member of the squad starting from the left, for each name given, the General shook the hand of the holder of the name. It started with Craigs' team before moving to Fischer's "… Private Lily Moore, Private First Class Jared Fulton, Corporal James Martinez, and Sergeant Neil Fischer."

As Kirkman shook the final hand, he nodded. He pulled back his arm.

"Nice to meet you all. Now I'm sure you've already heard from base that you will be working with the Green Berets to shape up some natives." As he said this, seven large troop transport trucks came barreling down the road they came. "And speak of the devil, here they are. Anyway, I would like you all to know that this is a very important mission, we have a lot riding on these natives being in top shape for the future. So I expect and know that all of you will put your all into this."

"Yes, sir" Responded the squad leader.

"Good." The smile on Kirkman's face went away as he came into a stance more befitting of one of the most respected Generals in the United States Armed Forces. "For the duration of the training period of these natives, you will be under the command of US Army Special Forces Captain Leonard McGarry of ODA 242. You do not speak of the details of this mission to anyone who is not involved. That is all."

"Yes sir."

He gave them all a salute before departing, heading to the direction of a nearby V-22 Osprey. And no sooner did Kirkman leave did the group of 8 Green Berets approached them, they were in full combat uniform, weapons and gear all present, including attachments on their weapons, vests and helmets.

Most of Craigs' squad felt slightly intimidated in the presence of the older, more experienced Green Berets, but Craigs himself stood firm.

At the lead was a tall Caucasian man. 'McGarry' being on his name patch. He offered his hand to Craigs. "Leonard McGarry, you must be Sergeant Craigs."

"Yes, sir." He accepted the handshake.

The Captain let go of Craigs' hand. "Now let's get straight to business, no need for introductions. You see those natives over there?"

McGarry pointed the direction of a large group of Remnant natives being accosted by US soldiers, from the looks of it there may have been at least a hundred of them. Most of them were on the younger side, no older than 30, a few looked more aged and grizzled. Some of them were faunus, with notable animalistic traits, they were getting some dirty looks.

"Those are mostly made up of former village militia from a few different towns and villages near American camps and outposts. Mayors no longer have a reason to pay them since we take out most of the nearby grimm, so they laid off their old protection en masse. All the CIA had to do was sweep in, offer them decent pay and they signed up in droves."

Did they just hear that right? The CIA was involved here? This was starting to look a lot bigger than it seemed.

"Of course, not everyone could be accepted, budget for this is high but not that high, we aren't paying for the salaries, support, and equipment of 900 individuals we don't even know are gonna get through training. So this is more of a test group of the best of those near thousand applicants."

"How are they the best, sir?" Craigs asked.

"At least six months of experience, good track record from the mayor's office, and out of the few who had aura, we took all of them too. CIA also made sure to pick those with families to feed, more desperate for a paycheck."

That last part sure sounded rough "So some of these guys have force fields on them?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Follow me."

The group of soldiers then started following the Captain who went towards the natives who were now organized in four long rows each. They were all looking nervous, some more annoyed, most of them were looking around at FOB Cooperwick, focusing on the various soldiers, vehicles, and structures within.

McGarry stood, looking upon all the accepted applicants. The Natives were chatting amongst themselves, making for a rowdy group, some were arguing, others were simply talking and whispering amongst themselves.

"QUIET!" McGarry shouted with a commanding tone of voice, this seemed to quiet everyone down.

"You've all seen what the applications offered." He continued in a less aggressive, yet still loud and commanding tone. "1400 lien a month, quite the upgrade from the 800 or a thousand most of you would receive in your local militia."

If Craigs remembered correctly, the exchange rate was one dollar was equivalent to 1.51 lien. He couldn't be asked to do the math in his head, but just thinking about it he could tell that the natives were gonna be paid a decent amount less than a private in the US army.

What he did not know that the CIA and Green Berets did was that militia in Remnant were paid substantially less. Towns and villages outside Kingdoms didn't exactly have the treasury to extravagantly pay their militia or give them benefits.

"But you must first complete your basic training course before even receiving your first batch of payment. How long will you be training? 8 weeks."

8 weeks was two weeks shorter than Basic Combat Training for American soldiers, but they had to expedite the process if it meant meeting the deadline the CIA set.

"You're allowed to leave at any time, but you won't be receiving your pay and we'll consider you effectively gone from the program…"

As McGarry continued to speak, Craigs pondered, he was confused, the whole point of making a PMC so it seemed was so that the US Military in Remnant could distance itself from commercial interests, yet here they were paying the natives… Unless.

"Who's paying them?" He tapped one of the Green Berets

"CIA but it's wrapped around its usual shenanigans."

He did not know what he meant by that at all.

McGarry continued to speak. "Training will involve physical training, combat trai-"

"We don't need training!" A masculine voice shouted "We can handle ourselves!"

McGarry seemed unfazed by the sudden challenge to his authority

"What was that? Can you speak up please?" He asked with a sardonic tone.

"All of us here have been guards before, we know what it's like we can handle anything you throw at us! We don't need any of this training stuff you're talking about!"

He spotted who was speaking, a tall tan skinned bearded man in rugged clothing at the very back. He was smiling confidently.

"Everyone who agrees with him, raise your hands." A good amount did, all with smug, confident faces.

He mentally counted each and every raised hand. '21.' He took note.

"Alright, everyone who has their hand raised, step forward, get in front of me."

Confusedly, the group of natives stepped out of their rows and headed for the space in front of Captain McGarry.

"I'm gonna show you just how wrong you are." He picked up his radio. "Prep the training area."

"(COMMS) Sir, this is a bit sudden; it could take a while."

"I don't mind, do it."

He then looked upon the group of natives in front of him. "Those who raised your hands will be participating in a combat exercise." Everyone stiffened at the sudden declaration. "Craigs! Tell your squad to start unloading our cargo."

---

"Let's take a break!" Shouted Ruby.

Blake huffed and puffed, her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths after having fatigued herself from running. The rest of the team was not fairing much better. Weiss in particular now had a scarf drenched in sweat.

They had tried to run to close the distance between them and the town of Cooperwick as fast as possible. This was of course a mistake, tiring them faster than their aura could keep up with, but they did make good distance.

"How… much… longer…" Yang said in between breaths.

Weiss brought out a map of land outside Vale they had brought with them. "We should be halfway down this road. Just a little bit more and we'll be there."

The other three huddled around her and looked at where she was pointing.

They were about a mile to their destination.

"How long have we been running?" Ruby surprisingly seemed to be the least fatigued of all of them.

Blake opened up her scroll "About an hour."

They all groaned.

Usually, an hour-long run wouldn't be all too bad, but they were running to get there as fast as possible, so they had not been pacing themselves, they didn't want to lag that much behind Sun and Neptune. Especially since if they walked, they could've taken hours to get there and by then it would've been night already, too little time to investigate the Americans and their doings in Cooperwick.

Ruby looked at Blake "Anything from Sun?"

They had gotten the message from Sun and Neptune that they had arrived at the American base in Cooperwick half an hour earlier but they didn't receive anything after.

She checked her scroll "Yeah, he said they're gonna do some sort of exercise soon."

"Exercise?" Yang tilted her head.

"Yeah." She then started typing on her scroll. "I asked him what he means, he hasn't seen it yet." She pocketed her scroll.

Ruby stepped forward, looking at her team "Should we keep going?"

She was given a nod by her teammates as they started to run once again.

As they ran, the fact that they were finally closing in on Cooperwick was dawning on them.

Their short time in Camp Glenn did not lead them to much information, the four mainly saw the blank empty rooms that the Americans kept them in before they were led into a bullhead they had right outside whatever building they were in. All they saw were soldiers standing around, rough roads, and a few extra buildings.

Blake would not forget the questioning she got from Kirkman, in particular the one about a certain man who she regretted ever knowing.

She wondered how the Americans knew him, and why they asked her about him in the first place. Perhaps all those raids they did on White Fang members and compounds led to them finding out about him.

But why? What was so important about The Doctor that made the Americans want to find him in particular? He was truly evil, but prior to her answering Kirkman's questions even they didn't know what exactly The Doctor was doing, only that he was a high-ranking member of the White Fang, so what was it that made them so interested in him-

She was snapped out of her line of thought by Yang tapping her on the shoulder while running.

"Blake, you good? You were spacing out there."

"Y- Yeah, just thinking about things."

"We're almost there!" Weiss was looking at a map.

A look of determination then fell upon all of them, as they ran faster down the roads, taking sharp turns in stride then something caught them off guard, bringing them to a halt.

Ahead of them was a small white building on the side of the road with a boom barrier blocking the road, much like the entrance stations in Vale. Everywhere around it was wire fencing. Behind the wire fence were a few vehicles with something mounted on their backs, aimed at the sky. There were strange structures, also looking up at the sky.

Outside the building with the boom barrier were a small group of soldiers, American soldiers, talking with each other outside the structure, they seemingly had not noticed Team RWBY.

"What is this?"

"This doesn't look like the pictures I saw on the internet."

"Who are they?"

"Why is everything fenced up?"

They all talked amongst each other, but once they realized they were getting nowhere by asking these questions, Weiss decided to be the voice of reason.

"Alright, we have to devise a plan, if we want to get to Cooperwick, we'll have to talk to them."

Ruby agreed "Okay, I'll go first, you guys- "

"Excuse me! You four!"

"GAH!" Ruby shrieked; her teammates were also caught by surprise by the sudden loud voice.

They looked at the soldiers who earlier weren't paying attention, one of them was now speaking through a megaphone, all soldiers were looking straight at them.

"Do you have business here? If you do, step forward! If not, you have 60 seconds to leave before we force you out!"

The four looked at each other before dipping their heads in agreement. They walked towards the soldiers, almost in sync.

The soldier put down his megaphone and spoke on some sort of walkie talkie before looking straight at them again. All the soldiers were fully kitted out, in all the gear they had grown used to seeing. He put down the walkie talkie and brought up the megaphone once again "Please avoid making any suspicious movements."

What did that even mean?

A few of the soldiers seemed amused at the confused looks they were returning.

Once they got within just a few yards of the soldiers they stopped. The soldiers walked closer to them though, holding their guns. The four were very ready to make 'suspicious movements' the situation was tense and they could not get a good read at the faces of the soldiers.

"Are you four visiting?" The man in the lead spoke

Yang lightly elbowed Ruby.

"D- uhhh, yeah." Her voice held a meek quality.

The soldier turned around, and spoke inaudibly once again on his radio "Do you have a permit?"

"Permit?"

"You need a permit to be able to enter, Ma'am." He said matter-of-factly

"And what are soldiers doing blocking the entry to Cooperwick?" Blake responded, crossing her arms and leveled a slight glare towards the man.

"Marines."

A perplexed look replaced her glare "What?"

"We're marines, ma'am. Not soldiers." One of the soldiers in the back said.

"America calls its soldiers marines?" Weiss asked with puzzlement.

"No, we call marines 'marines', and soldiers 'soldiers'."

This did not answer the question, if anything they were even more confused.

Blake shook her head "Doesn't matter, why are you blocking the road?"

"Safety reasons ma'am."

Yang waved her hands "We aren't here to cause any trouble"

The marine shook his head "I don't make the rules, ma'am, if you want to enter you need a permit, you can get one over at the entrance office over there." He looked and pointed to the right where the road branched out and led to an unassuming square building. "But if you aren't related to anybody from inside it's gonna be hard to get entry."

The four then turned towards the building they were pointed towards.

"Good luck." The marine said before walking back with the rest of his men

The Team then looked at each other before nodding and walking to the building.

---

Ty lifted up a sandbag from the pile, setting it on top of the wall that Colt was finishing making adjustments to. They were given thirty minutes to prepare. Everyone was doing their part, setting up sandbag walls, moving crates of 'ammunition' or in Sergeant Craigs' case, keeping watch of the enemy team.

They were participating in a combat exercise, an informal one. Craigs' squad of nine against all 21 Remnant natives who raised their hands

On top of a nearby hill, surrounded by a few other fellow spectators, Captain Leonard McGarry watched over both sides as they made preparations, or at least one side did, the natives just seemed to crudely copy whatever Craigs' squad was doing.

This was an unconventional exercise, usually these types of exercises would have no clear winner and would rather have umpires give an evaluation of each team's performance.

But here, McGarry set up a winning condition, whoever held the other Team's flag in their hands by the end of it won. Each side on their defensive positions, a red flag for the Americans, and a blue one for the natives.

Each side was armed with M4s loaded with blank rounds, though they had laser attachments where if the laser hit one of the sensors attached to the helmet or body armor on a person would signal their elimination.

He observed the teams as the time ticked closer to the starting time. He then heard footsteps on the grass behind him. He instinctively turned around. It was his boss for the remainder of the operation, Elijah King.

"You're gonna want to keep an eye on those two." He said as he walked beside McGarry. He had his own pair of binoculars.

"Who?" McGarry asked, not even questioning the sudden inquiry.

Elijah brought up his binoculars and scanned the side of natives. "That one, blonde kid looking down the barrel of his own M4, the one with the tail, and the blue haired kid right next to him."

McGarry took a few seconds to find someone matching those descriptions. "Blonde kid with an open shirt?"

"Yep, that's him."

"What's so special about them?" He then confirmed the other man standing next to him, having blue hair, sporting goggles and a red jacket."

Elijah set down his binoculars while McGarry kept looking. "Blonde kid's name is Sun Wukong, blue's name is Neptune Vasilias. And they… Are not supposed to be here."

McGarry brought down his binoculars in a surprised manner and gave Elijah an incredulous look. "What?"

"The two of them are from Haven Academy in Mistral and are, or were, in Beacon to compete in the Vytal Festival in about three weeks."

"What're they doing here then? I thought you guys vetted everyone." He said, astounded.

Elijah simply looked on, relaxed. "We did, the two of them along with their team were in Birch, a village just right outside Vale. They were doing some sort of training. They must've noticed the commotion of our boys coming into town and passing out applications, they came in, and those two applied. We sorted them out immediately, knew who they were, why they were there, and more. I mean come on, it's like they didn't even try, the shipping address they wrote was for Beacon, ridiculous fake names, 'Bluekill Horizon'." Elijah laughed "Not to mention the pictures my boys on the ground took of them. We still let them in, they think they have fooled us though."

McGarry looked at Elijah, shocked "You LET them in? We should have them taken out right now."

"No, let them have their fun, we'll deal with them later. If they wanted to do something they would've done it by now. Plus, they're students, not exactly likely that they were sent here intentionally to spy on us. That applications run was a surprise visit, they probably just wanted to see what was happening and got roped in. Signed up, told to meet up at the same place in a week if they're accepted and here we are."

McGarry relaxed a little at that. A little. "Well, if you're gonna 'deal with them' anyway, what's the point of keeping them around now?"

Elijah gave him a haughty look "You did this whole exercise for a reason, right?"

The Green Beret nodded in return.

"I assume that reason was to show the natives that we're better than them, that might not be exactly it, but that's what it is in the end. I'm keeping those two around for the same reason. When I send em back home and pretend this was all an accident, they'll come screaming, talking about what they saw at Cooperwick, the superior tactics of American Soldiers and more. It's the same reason I'm letting all those Cooperwick villagers spectate."

He pointed out the crowd that had gathered outside the exercise zone to watch it.

"What if those two see something we don't want them to see."

"They aren't really gonna see anything incriminating anyway, what they'll see is the same as the rest of the natives and other applicants. And FOB Cooperwick is on maximum security, so unless they got some sort of shapeshifting superpowers, they ain't sneaking in anywhere, trust me I checked."

McGarry understood him a little, but still thought it would be better to escort the two out of the base. But he wasn't in charge here, so rather he asked a question. "And what if- "

"What if our boys lose? Then I'm gonna have a word with Kirkman and him not drilling the troops here well enough, can you tell me why, Captain?"

He already knew the answer to that question, it's why he set this up in the first place "Their only disadvantage is in numbers, both teams have been given standard equipment, the natives aren't allowed to use the weapons they brought with them so they don't have any experience with the equipment on them." McGarry made a quick observation.

Elijah nodded "That's correct, but there's more, since this is basically one big game of laser tag, aura or personal resilience isn't counted, one shot and you're counted dead by the system."

"And since Craigs' team is trained to use M4s and they have experience with them, they should have better aim and a better understanding of how to use them, putting our guys at a massive advantage with the one-shot system." The Captain continued "They're also trained in fighting human adversaries and have been drilled to fight in almost this exact same situation, the natives are more used to fighting grimm and don't have proper strategy in fighting a human force."

"That's right, so if they lose here, I'm gonna start having serious doubts about our armed forces, no offense."

McGarry caught a laugh before it got out. "You ever serve, sir?"

"Yep, six years in the Air Force before I signed up as an operations officer at Langley, wanted to be a protective agent but they barely accept anybody who wasn't SOF. Maybe you'll have better luck."

McGarry chuckled. If he remembered correctly, protective agents were the type of people the public thought of when thinking CIA agent, well-trained soldiers whose job it is to act.

"How much longer before the exercise starts?" Elijah asked.

McGarry tapped one of the umpires next to him. "Thirteen minutes." The umpire said.

So they waited as both sides continued preparing.

---

The inside of the entry office wasn't very impressive. The four were quietly waiting around in what they assumed was a lobby. Sitting on a large couch, staring at nothing particular.

The man who told them to wait was another soldier, or marine, at this point they didn't know what was what. But this soldier wasn't wearing any gear at all, no weapons, satchels, or the vests they had grown used to seeing, the helmet had even been replaced with a cap. With the lack of gear, they could even read the things on the uniform

The soldier had a badge that stated his name, 'Macklit', as well as 'U.S. Army' on the right.

Ruby twiddled her fingers at the awkward atmosphere. The only sound coming from the ceiling fan above them.

Then the door to their left burst open.

"Now, you're sure I can't help you carry those to the gate, Mrs. Burns?" A middle-aged man in uniform came out, smiling at someone still within the room.

Then out came an elderly woman holding a small stack of papers and a purse, she too was smiling.

"Don't be silly. I just hope I didn't waste too much of your time with all my photographs."

The man waved off the remark with a smile. As he led the woman to the exit "Goodness no, your granddaughter's wedding was gorgeous."

"Of course, it was! Did you see her dress?"

He opened the door for the lady "I bet even the mayor was impressed."

The woman giggled, walking halfway through the exit, turning one more time to the man, whose nameplate they could now read 'Lewis'.

"If you're ever in town, come by our house, I'll show you pictures of the floral arrangements."

"I can't wait, goodbye."

The Woman then stepped out "Bye!" Still smiling.

Bakers closed the door before then looking at the soldier at the desk. "Who's next?" The soldier pointed to the four who then looked up attentively.

"They're a group."

Bakers did a full 360 and stared them down.

"Ah! Sorry for the wait, please, come in." He took a few quick strides towards the door of the room he had left with the woman.

The Team confusedly stood up and walked inside.

Lewis followed, closing the door behind them.

It was a simple looking office, two chairs in front of a desk situated near a small window.

He sat on the chair behind the desk "Sorry we don't have enough seats, usually just one person represents the whole group."

They almost facepalmed. Why didn't they just do that? They chose to stand up.

"Ah anyway, I'm Warrant Officer Lewis. I'm going to help you today with the entry process." He gave them a smile.

The faces that were returned to him were a mixed bag, mostly incredulous looks, especially from Blake.

His smile didn't waver "Now, before we begin, do you have any questions? I think it's better we clear everything up now before we proceed."

They all glanced at each other.

"Why even is there an entry process? Can't we just enter?" Weiss was the first to speak.

"Safety reasons, Miss. You see, while the American presence has benefited Cooperwick- "Blake rolled her eyes which he took notice of "The United States also has many enemies, particularly in the White Fang, and we've had known members attempt to enter, this is to mitigate that."

"How exactly has the United States benefited Cooperwick?" It was Blake's turn to speak, she kept with incredulous glare.

"Well, we originally came here because we had suspicions that individuals affiliated with the White Fang were present, General Kirkman came to talk with Mayor Winslow who agreed to have us question these individuals while we set up a base of Operations here that would allow us to protect the village from Grimm, a crisis that had affected the village for a long time by then."

Blake knew this to be a fact, they had agents in Cooperwick, she'd never been here herself but she saw the records.

"Prior to our Arrival, the town would have 10-15 deaths a month due to Grimm, now that's down to Zero. "

Shocked looks came from the girls. Not even the four kingdoms saw casualty rates from grimm that low, and this is coming from settlements outside? Where it was common for one to just be wiped out in a matter of hours by grimm? It was unheard of.

"The added safety made people from all over want to move in as well, the town has grown exponentially, it's why I'm calling it a town now. It went from roughly 1400 people to around 2700 in the months we've been here. Not exactly a town, but it's getting there. That woman, Mrs. Burns, sweet old lady, I just helped her through the immigration process, she'll be moving in with her Grandson's family. It's actually why we're a decent bit far from the town right now, usually all the soldiers guarding it and this entry building will just be outside Cooperwick's walls. But because of how many people are moving in, the people have to build many new homes and buildings, hence the protection detail being further out now because Cooperwick is expanding rapidly."

Blake nodded, she wasn't wholly satisfied with the answer, but it gave somewhat of an explanation.

All this was very surprising to them, for a village to be growing this fast was unprecedented. They had been to villages outside Vale's walls before for missions and practice but none usually ever got to that size, not without money to pay for huntsmen at least.

But here, it seemed as though the Americans substituted for those huntsmen, and for free too.

"Speaking of protection detail, I hope those Marines outside didn't cause you girls too much trouble, they can be bit paranoid. They're the same squad who had to deal with a White Fang member try to throw a grenade through the entrance."

They winced a bit at that, even though Blake was not partial to the United States' tendency to ill indiscriminately, she acknowledged that the White Fang's against civilians were reprehensible.

"Speaking of marines." Ruby raised her hand "What's the difference between marines and soldiers?"

This too was on everyone's mind especially with how the marines outside insisted they were called that.

The officer seemed to almost laugh "Well to make it simple, soldiers are troops of the US Army, marines are troops of the US Marine Corps."

"Yes, but what's the difference?" Weiss, having been acquainted with the Atlesian military, didn't see the point of having more than one fighting force.

"Well, they have different purposes. Again, without getting too technical, the Army is well, the Army, the Marine Corps is the amphibious arm of the US Armed Forces."

Amphibious? They were pretty far away from any sea or ocean.

"I know what you're thinking, 'Amphibious? But we're far from the coast.' Well, the Marines also tend to take the role of the expeditionary arm of the US Armed Forces, the first in the fray if you will."

That was… interesting. Weiss gave the man a questioning look

"But why would you need a separate force for expeditions?"

In the Atlesian military, everyone fell under the same branch except for Huntsmen and the venerated Ace Ops. Everyone from pilots, to infantry.

"To put it simply, it helps keep things more organized, you don't want one guy or branch handling the bureaucracy and strategy of people whose missions he might not even understand. This way we have people trained for a specific thing being led by people who have experience in this specific thing."

That made sense, to Weiss' understanding of the Military, that would just complicate things.

The Officer then waved his hand "This is getting off topic, do you have any questions about the entry process? If so, speak, if not, then we can proceed."

They looked at the uniformed man for a second, then at each other, before shaking their heads towards Lewis.

"Alright." He pulled on one of the drawers an picked out four sheets of paper. "Since I assume you aren't immigrating here, are you?" He gave them a look as if asking them, he received several head shakes. "Then these are all you really have to fill out, then I'll have to confirm and check your identities for possible criminal records, or anything, all in all it shouldn't take us more than twenty minutes, granted of course there's nothing out of order I find."

That made them nervous. Especially the part about identities, what would happen if the Officer found out that they were in fact Team RWBY, the same Team that had been struck at Mountain Glenn. Of course, they had done nothing wrong, but the man might interpret them coming here as an attempt to take revenge.

Lewis wordlessly slid the papers towards them "Each of you take one, and fill in all the necessary information."

They took the papers. Lewis then got out four pens and distributed them among the four.

They began to write down all their information. The papers did not ask for much, name, place of residence, age, occupation. There were also checkboxes that related to their reasons for visit. They finished it in just under ten minutes, those marines outside had made it seem like they were going to be here for hours.

Lewis seemed to notice that they had finished writing. "You all done?"

They gave him a nod, as he took the papers one by one. He read one of them for a split second.

"Oh." He gave an inquisitive look the moment his eyes fell upon the document.

This was it, the moment of truth.

"You guys are from Team RWBY, interesting." He didn't take his eyes away from the paper "Really sorry about what happened in Mountain Glenn by the way, we did scans of the place weeks before we hit, we really didn't think there'd be non-combatants."

Dour features came upon their faces, but it didn't seem he was chastising them, mostly treating the matter casually. They breathed a small sigh of relief. He then started to type on his computer, looking at one of the papers, typing, and looking back at the computer, presumably checking whatever 'record' they had.

He then pulled something from his desk once again, it was a stamp, he pressed it atop Ruby's paper. Presumably meaning she was in. He handed it to Ruby. "Thank you." She quietly said. He gave her a nod in return.

"Alright, next." He muttered under his breath. "Blake Belladonna."

A bead of sweat fell down her forehead as a realization came over her. The Americans knew that she was a former member of the White Fang. Would this mean she'd be barred from entry? Worse yet, arrested?

Her line of thought was cut when he stamped her paper and handed it to her.

Nothing? Did he know and just decide not to do anything? Or did he not and whatever system he was using didn't show her records. According to Ozpin her Vale criminal record was wiped, did that mean the Americans were using Vale's criminal records? How did they even have access to them?

He then took another paper "Alright, Yang Xiao Long. Nice name." Yang smiled

"Oof, it seems like you got into a brawl." His eyes widened "Multiple brawls."

Yang sweatdropped and flailed her arms around in a pacifying manner "I promise sir, it won't happen here."

"Yeah, it seems like these happened not all too recently, as long as you don't pull any of that here, you're good, but if we see even a hint of trouble coming from you, we'll have you and your friends thrown out, got it?" He narrowed his eyes for her. For once, looking serious

She nodded adamantly

"Alright, last one, Weiss Schnee." And after just a few seconds, her paper was stamped as well.

As Weiss accepted her paper, the Warrant Officer smiled at them once again "Okay, that should be it, you're all free to go, just hand these over to the marines and they should let y'all right in. These papers allow you to stay here up to three days." He stood up and held his hand out.

Ruby reached in and shook it. She let go.

"Alright, you girls have fun now, stay safe and stay out of trouble. If you're gonna stay the night I suggest the White Fox Inn, I don't know what the drinking laws over at Vale are, but if you wanna Mr. Shiro has a bar in there too, he makes a mean old fashioned."

"We'll…" Ruby simply stared at the man, not knowing how to respond "Keep that in mind" She let out.

The four walked out, Lewis did not follow, they simply walked through the doorway and were greeted by the outside. They took the same path that they went down just minutes earlier. And eventually to the marines who had originally turned them away.

One of them approached, the nameplate being obscured by the vest he was wearing. "You got the papers?

Yang nudged Ruby to speak. "Uh, yeah!"

The marine held his hand out, they gave him their papers, as he read them one by one.

They stood around awkwardly as the soldier just read the papers.

Minutes passed when he finally gave them back their papers "You can throw these out if you want, but you're gonna need these to get back in if you leave Cooperwick during your stay."

The marine then looked to the others who were handling the stopper, he gave them a thumbs up and with the signal the boom barrier lifted up and girls were let in.

As they finally stepped behind the checkpoint, they got a good look the various vehicles that were behind the fence, they looked like strange pickup trucks with rocket pod looking devices mounted on their backs, pointed at the Sky.

Ruby speculated that they may be for Nevermore or other aerial grimm.

The road to Cooperwick was long.

The closer they got to Cooperwick, the less sparse the surrounding area became. They saw buildings, houses, wells, under construction, people speaking over each other, giving commands. Soldiers here and there simply standing, holding weapons. Once they finally reached the gate, their surroundings were nothing but buildings under construction. The officer was not lying about the rapid expansion.

People were pacing by them on the streets, they looked relatively content, not unhappy, simply minding their own business, seemingly not minding the relatively large American presence in the area.

The gate leading to the town was wide open, people were freely walking in and out.

"Guess that checkpoint was the only one." Blake stared at the open gate.

They looked at each other, nodded and went through the gate.

They walked aimlessly through the packed streets of Cooperwick, people were everywhere, carrying bags, simply pacing along, it looked like a scene straight out of Vale's most populous districts, there was not a single piece of road that people weren't walking across. The city was vibrant, the streets were lined with various businesses and shops.

Blake took notice of something as she glanced at the various businesses, none of them had any "No Faunus" signs or some variation of it. Faunus seemed to also freely walk the streets, she noticed that they had not garnered any dirty looks from any of the human passersby.

It became evident that they really didn't plan ahead when they didn't know where to go other than walk on the street.

"Where should we head?" Yang finally asked

All she got were shrugs as they moved.

"The officer said we should check out some inn." She seemed to ponder "What was it called again?"

"White Fox Inn." Weiss answered "He did not tell us where it was though."

Ruby shrugged "Guess we just have to ask around."

Yang tapped the shoulder of a woman who was passing them by.

"Excuse me, do you know where White Fox Inn is?"

The woman grasped her chin and looked on "Keep heading down the street, take a right and keep walking. You should see a big building, has a big sign with its name on it, you can't miss it."

"Thanks."

Now that they had a destination, they walked down the road as instructed, and took a right at the junction.

In the distance they could already see a building that stood out, its overall design was very similar to the surrounding houses, and it was made of a similar material, but it was larger and had a more elaborate design. Fanlights over the windows, pillars protruding from the walls, and a mansard roof.

Whoever owned the establishment must have been rich.

In front of the building was a road verge complete with grass and a large tree. Two soldiers… or marines, they really didn't know how to differentiate them, were standing there, facing away from them, looking up at the tree. But they noticed that patterns on each of their uniforms were different, the pattern on the darker skinned one looked more… pixelated while the others looked more splotchy.

As they approached, they noticed that there was a little girl standing in between the two men, she had large goat like horns coming from her head, clearly a faunus. And was she crying? Were these two men harassing her?

A rage suddenly rose from within Blake, the other three noticed the girl's saddened state too and were eyeing the two Americans with disdain. They came near them; Blake raised her hand up to put her hand on the shoulder of the one on the left with the splotchy patterned uniform.

"Hey- "Then he moved forward, they didn't seem to notice Blake's voice.

"I'll do it" His rough voice called out at the same time as Blake's as he walked towards the tree.

Her and the rest of the team were still behind them, seeing as they weren't doing anything to the girl, they just watched the soldier(?) walk up to the tree.

He put his arms around the trunk, then his legs, as he started to shimmy up to the tree.

It was then that they noticed that on a short branch halfway up the tree was a small orange kitten, meowing, seemingly unable to get down on its own, it looked big eyed at the soldier. Was that why the little girl was crying? Was the Soldier trying to get it?

The soldier was getting closer and closer with his motion. Eventually reaching where the kitten was, he was attached to the trunk, he reached out his arm towards the animal, it backed away in fear.

"Come on kitty, I ain't gonna hurt you." The kitten continued to back away much to the man's dismay, he shimmied up a few more times, the kitten could no longer back away further as it reached the end of the branch. With one swift motion, he caught the kitten with his gloved hand. He wrapped his hand around the kitten, as he attempted to descend from the tree.

But as he tried to do the same shimmying motion, the lack of a second arm to grip something with made his descent uncontrolled, he slid down the tree in a swift motion, dropping a solid twelve feet, his buttocks taking the brunt of the fall.

"Augh! FUCK!" He screeched. He instinctively let go of the kitten in his hand, it ran straight to its presumed owner, the little girl. He rolled onto his stomach and grasped his behind with his hand to ease the pain as squirmed on the ground.

Blake simply stared dumbfounded. Weiss was in a similar state, especially surprised by the level of vulgarity the soldier had just displayed in front of a child. Ruby and Yang held back the urge to laugh.

The other soldier did not "HA! HA! Dumbass… They didn't teach you how to make a controlled descent in ranger school?" He said while snickering.

And… more vulgarity. Was this natural to Americans? This wasn't the first time they heard this much cursing from citizens of their nation, a certain radio show came to mind.

"I've seen you crayon eaters do dumber shit." He stood up, still holding his sphincter.

The other soldier just smirked and threw his hands up, weapon still in hand "Don't diss the Crayola life."

"What's your favorite flavor? I heard you guys really like brick red, cause a brick is- "

Their exchange was interrupted by the little girl running up to the first soldier and hugging his leg, the kitten sat atop her right horn. The man, clearly caught by surprise, didn't know what to do. The other soldier gave him a knowing look. In response, the first started to pat the girl's head, slowly.

"Thank you." The girl quietly said, still sniffling.

"No problem." He answered awkwardly. The girl let go and walked away eventually blending into the crowd moving through the road.

And as RWBY watched on, they realized that perhaps they had judged the situation too quickly. It looked as though the child had asked them for help with the cat, and they had nothing to do with her original saddened state.

"Man, you are not good with kids." The second soldier said matter of factly.

"Well, they don't exactly teach child psychology in ranger school." He quipped

What was this ranger school they kept mentioning?

"What're you guys doing out here anyway, thought you all were still back at Camp Glenn."

He shrugged "Nah they're scaling back operations over there, same reason you guys were pulled back up here. They don't need SOF out there anymore."

The conversation was getting interesting, first was the implication of some sort of school and something called "SOF" that these two seemed to be a part of.

"But why are you out here in town? This is marine territory."

Guess they had their answer of who the marine was.

"Our LT likes the coffee grounds they sell here; he got a taste of it last time we were up here."

The Marine laughed. "You came all this way for coffee? Man, your LT must be a pain in the ass."

"He is."

The door of the inn then came open. And out came another soldier, with the same uniform as the first, likely not a marine. In his hand he held a jar with the presumed coffee ground within.

"Dunn, I got it." He spoke to the direction of the two men.

"Aight, time for me to go." The first soldier, now named Dunn, responded. "Nice talking with you again, Jackson."

"You too."

The waved to each other as Dunn and the other man walked off. It was then that Jackson turned around and came face to face with Team RWBY.

"Ah, didn't realize there were people, sorry 'bout that." He stepped aside, making way to the door of the inn.

They took the offer and stepped into the inn.

---

Ty pushed in another clip, securing it within his M4A1, before looking through his scope, trying to scan for any more of their adversaries.

"Tango, right!" Shouted Lily.

Ty reacted quickly, aiming his freshly reloaded M4 at a tall woman with horns firing randomly at their position as she ran. Both her and Lily fired their blanks at her, the lasers seemed to register as the beeper on her shoulder lit up and started to beep.

She threw her hands up, dropping the rifle as she walked off.

Usually playing as BLUFOR in any war game was hard, but so far it was a cakewalk, they must've already taken out just about everyone.

"Twelve o'clock!" Their commanding officer yelled as they laid down fire on the position given to them.

In the distance, Elijah King watched as the two sides fought it out, their guns ringing like they were firing real rounds. So far it had gone as he had predicted, the natives tried a suicidal charge against the Americans, losing half their force in the process, when that failed, they retreated and hunkered down in their positions, but because they didn't dig in like the other team, they were easily picked off one by one.

One more suicidal charge later and they were now only left with four remaining natives who were smart enough to remain at their base which they had now dug up slightly.

Curiously among them was the two infiltrators, the monkey boy and the blue haired kid, they were hidden behind a mound of sandbags they quickly piled on top of each other

This told Elijah two things, the first was that the very least his faith in the Armed Forces was well placed, the other was that these Natives were very close to hopeless. They were absolutely horrendous, not a single thread of a strategic sense of thought, they had grown used to fighting with swords, but even then, it would usually be basic logic to keep to your position if you had a weapon which supported a long-range battle, yet they still committed to a charge, a charge that didn't have an ounce of basic maneuvering.

"And this was the best of the best." He muttered to himself.

"It's not looking good for them." The Green Beret to his left said.

"Hm." He exhaled "I can see that."

A couple more shots rang out from the side of the Americans, and another native who failed to dig in was hit. Leaving only 3 now, including the two would-be spies.

Elijah watched them closely.

Back on the ground Colt smiled. He had taken the last shot which had eliminated one of their opponents. "Outta here, bitch." He laughed.

"Man, this is way too easy." Ty said, twisting a wheel on his ACOG, adjusting the magnification level.

"Don't get cocky, it's not over yet." Their squad commander, Sergeant Craigs, held up his binoculars, relegating the task of firing to his subordinates. "The fuck?"

They all heard their squad commander suddenly curse.

Sergeant Smith turned away from his scope "What?"

Craigs wordlessly passed the binoculars to Smith, he looked at the where Craigs was looking. And he could swear the area behind the big pile of sandbags was… shining? He thought he was seeing things, he pulled back the binoculars and rubbed his eyes. The others were curious now, they looked at the sergeant. He brought his eyes back to the binoculars, and now there were even more lights behind the sandbags.

And then the lights came out in the form of two humanoids. "Holy shit!" Yelled out in surprise as he saw the two men made out of light come out from behind the sandbags rushing the

American position while fanning out.

"Are they really pulling out magic bullshit now?" Teddy began firing his gun at the men of light.

The rest of the squad burst out in profanities of surprise and confusion, but nonetheless they started firing at the men of light who looked eerily similar, they were surprisingly fast, much faster than the militia people, they were as fast as a speeding car, but unlike a car they had a small presence, making it much harder to fire upon the clones.

As the sound of firing guns filled their surroundings, from behind the sandbags then jumped a blue haired kid, who rushed the center, whereas the clones kept going for the flanks. They knew it would be better to hit the ones rushing from the sides.

"These guys aren't going away!" Colt said, firing a few more times at the clones.

"They aren't wearing vests, dumbass! They can't go away!" Ty clicked his tongue

"This has to be cheating or something." Corporal Martinez instead started shooting at the blue haired kid.

Fischer did the same "Well the umpires sure as hell ain't saying anything! Keep shooting!"

"But then the clones would get to us!"

"We'll deal with that later!"

Many thoughts then ran through Sergeant Craigs' head, the man in the middle was blindly firing at them as he ran, why weren't the clones? Then he got it, if the light clones did not have functioning vests, then neither would they have functioning M4s.

"They can't shoot us, their guns don't work, just like their vests." He told his squad "They're a distraction, shoot the guy in the middle. "

But as they pulled their files to fire the man in the middle, he jumped, and as he did both light clones disappeared, then another man came out from behind the sandbags, with blond hair and a tail coming out his behind, wielding his M4, running towards them at incredible speeds and firing in the same way the other guy was.

But firing a moving target in the air was difficult, regardless, two of them fired at the boy.

The first sound they heard after was a beep, then the sound of the boy's feet impacting the grass, he was out. Then a few more shots, and another beep, blue hair was gone too.

"YES!" Ty was the first to shout, then the whole team burst into cheers, though they kept their weapons trained ahead of them as they knew their to still be one more opponent at their original position.

The cheers died down after a few seconds, Sergeant Craigs lowered his weapon and looked to his squad.

"Alright, let's take the last guy out."

---

The innkeeper set the mug in front of Yang. "So you want to know more about the Americans, yeah?" His white fox ears perked up. Yang slid the mug closer to her and brought it to her lip, taking a sip.

The rest of the lower floor was empty, they looked to be the only ones inside which would be normal for any sort of establishment, it was midday after all. The innkeeper, named Edward, however, let them in and agreed to give Yang her order of a strawberry sunrise despite her being underage. The others opted not to drink

"Well, I can't really say much, they came here two months- was it two months? Eh it was a while ago, anyway, they had just dealt with a big horde of grimm coming that was coming for us, I honestly don't know what happened, I remember waking up to the sounds of faraway explosions and the mayor announcing a couple hours later that the grimm were gone."

RWBY listened to him recounting the story while Yang finished up her drink in one glug, not even savoring it.

"Few days later, they- General Kirkman and a bunch of his soldiers came right into the middle of the town square and waltz right into the mayor's office."

He paused to take Yang's now empty glass and set it aside.

"I don't know if this actually happened by the way, I was tending to the inn, but I heard some things."

Deadpan stares were returned to him.

"But what I do know is that a little after they start building a big base just outside the village and then all of a sudden there are a bunch soldiers walkin' around town."

They almost corrected his use of the word 'soldier'. He took a different glass and started to polish it with a cloth.

"I don't mind, they don't exactly cause much of a ruckus in the streets, well not when they're doing their job." His face morphed into a mild grimace.

The others looked with anticipation at what he was about to say, he noticed their looks and continued.

"Sometimes they're let off or something and some of them come over here and make a mess of the place, they're not allowed to drink booze but that doesn't stop them from making the bar look like an explosion just went through it."

His grip on the glass he was polishing grew ever so slightly stronger. He then sighed.

"It's not like I hate them being here either." He put down the glass and the cloth. " In fact I'm a little grateful."

Weiss raised an eyebrow "Grateful?"

"You folks from Vale?"

Three nods, Weiss hesitated but nodded anyway.

"I can tell, you wouldn't understand, behind all those walls, huntsmen, police, you guys are the closest thing to safe in Remnant."

They recoiled a little at that but understood his point. The Kingdoms were always under the protection of huntsmen, as it was the kingdoms who facilitated them, there were always huntsmen nearby and ready to act, keeping everyone safe, the outside did not have the same protections.

"Out here? You know we'd be lucky to go by a day without at least one of our own going missing or being found dead."

And there was the grimm reality for all living outside the kingdoms, the four suddenly felt bad for questioning the man.

"Usually it would be militia, poor bastards were barely trained but they were sent out to protect the village, sometimes grimm get in the village itself and… kill a few people before militia can come in, there was one nasty attack a year ago, killed 39, including my wife."

Their expressions saddened "I'm sorry." Weiss became the one to speak.

He shook his head "Don't be, I'm the one who brought it up. The mayor did his best, upped the salary for the militia, bought more dust, didn't change anything, people would still die damn near everyday… That was… Until the Americans came. And they changed everything. No more dead every day, no more going to bed wondering if the next victim will be someone you know, none of that. All for the small price of having to be woken up by explosions at four in the morning."

"But are you not at least a little bit angered that they've taken over your way of life?" The heiress decided to press on.

"I mean they haven't really taken over anything, they're more a guard detail really. The most they've done inside town is fill up the streets with soldiers here and there. But I admit, back when they first started, they would raid the houses of White Fang suspects. And it was pretty bad for the first couple weeks, cause we never knew what proof they had and if it was right or wrong, so pretty much every faunus in town was worried we'd be next."

Blake leaned forward "And aren't you mad, being a faunus yourself?" The innkeeper could've sworn her bow twitched.

He simply stared at Blake "These people they took, after they were taken, the Americans released all the evidence they had on them, and it was all pretty damning. So, no, not really, I don't agree with their brutality with dealing with the White Fang. But they're a big reason why people still look at us badly today, so in my opinion, them being taken down isn't really an issue. I don't hate the Americans, I don't like them either, but I'd have to be blind to not see the good that's happened since they came"

Blake stood up, locking eyes with her fellow faunus. "But look at what they're doing! They've taken over the town, isn't the reason you people are living outside the kingdoms because you don't want to live under the thumb of an oppressive system? But that's exactly what you're doing right now."

And to that the man simply sighed "Look lady, I know exactly why you and your friends are here."

She backed away

"You're not here for the sights, you're not here for the delicious sausages, you're here cause you want to know more about the Americans, you aren't the first."

Dumbstruck, the four almost recoiled at the innkeeper's sudden statement.

"And I'm willing to humor you, but what I think of them is set in stone, I know what this town was like before, and what it's like right now. You can go out, hell, talk to them, they're everywhere, some of them are even willing to have a chat, you can buy a room, just 80 lien a night for a room for two, and get more time to meet more people, you can find out all you want about the Americans, and everyone you talk to will probably tell you the same thing I have."

In a fit of anger, Blake pulled out a black purse, opening it, she brought out a set of multi-colored cards, she slammed them in front of Edward.

"I'd like to book two rooms." Her emotionless tone was not matched by her fury filled eyes. Her teammates behind her were simply standing astonished.

"Want to prove me wrong, eh? Go ahead. Upstairs, the last two doors down the hallway at the right." He reached under his desk, he stood straight, holding two keys, he slid them to Blake who wordlessly took them.

Yang tapped her on "Blake… Are you sure- "

"Yes."

---

I've done it again! I have waited waaaay too long once again. But before making excuses and discussions, I gotta respond to the reviews from the last chapter first… Which there are a lot of, wow, thank y'all as always.

Twylaken: You're awesome too :)

vmoneywashere: I am alive and well, if I ever die, y'all will know don't worry. This chapter kinda tries with getting the reaction from non-RWBY characters like SSSN, though we don't see much yet. I'll be sure to keep up the work.

Monster King: Awesome

Gunfighterxy76: Good to see you too. I am quite excited to write the Mistral arc, so many great ideas to be executed. As for 141 that's actually a good idea, I'd also love for some of our main cast of soldiers to meet with the RWBY main cast which I played around with in this chapter with Dunn and Jackson.

Just a Crazy-Man: Even nicer

whatsupman: The UN and Geneva conventions application in Remnant is something I've actually thought about a lot, but unfortunately, no matter how much googling I try to do, there probably aren't any resources on "human rights outside the Earth" or if Remnant(ians?) can lawfully be considered human since that's a whole other thing. As for other forces, I think I'm dialing it back with characters from other games, for now at least, and Delta Force has been included ala Metal Team.

ProfessorZooms: This story kind of follows its own canon where it diverges from the original timeline (GLA doesn't somehow take control of a particle cannon and invade Europe). And HA! I got you fooled, but nah I would never do that. I know the feeling of getting the email for the update on a story you like and oops it's an April fools chapter!

Cyricist001: I try to remain ambiguous with what exactly the US is using to defend its main base of operations. With regards to the faunus thing, I think you can still have a lack of acceptance regardless of whether or not you have a faunus in the council. Personally I also don't think that a faunus in the military means much for equality, see black men in the military pre civil rights movement, and I'm trying to portray the inequality within the SDC in a different way which will be explored in later chapters.

Krannesca: Don't get disheartened! If I get bored of this story or decide to end it, I'll say so. And thank you.

Guest: Particle Cannon is something I also am very excited about.

Guest: Indeed, they are.

Guest: Mistral arc soon

Marc Warhammer Jason: Thanks, and I apologize for this chapter taking months too. I'm working my way there, as for F-14s, I'm really torn between pulling a Top Gun Maverick (bullshit away the use of F-14s) and making them use era-appropriate planes, we'll see my decision one day.

Ramireztheloyal: Indeed, and I am back once again! Believe me I'm well researched on the F-35, actually one of my favorite jets of all time, and unfortunately for your suggestion I'm laying off importing characters from other series/franchises at the moment so that can't be implemented yet. Also I really appreciate your insight on a lot of things.

Savior16: Thanks! I hope those expectations continue to be met as this story goes forward.

KitKatTack0927: Well here I am, thanks for calling me your fav.

Mr. SUS: I'm back again! This time with a fresh chapter.

Review Dude 357: Well, sorry for the long wait again! But believe me, the story isn't gonna die anytime soon, we'll see for song choices, I do want to somehow implement good ol' music in this story for combat and the like.

Onyx Gabriel: Thanks

Wing Zero 032: Thanks! And you got some very interesting insight there. And sorry for the ridiculously long wait once again.

Terranillias: Well we actually haven't gotten to the part of the general public finding out about it yet, as for the satellites I thought conventional rockets, as the US very much has the resources to carry out these launches.

Scottusa1: Hope this was great too.

Thyz22: Awww, thanks. Yeah and I always found it interesting how people readily assumed the Atlesian military was anything like ours when Volume 8 and the history given to us completely tells the opposite. As for the huntsmen, I think they're strong, very strong, by my estimate I think one higher tier huntsman (I'm talking main characters) could take on a couple platoons at once if given enough prep.

Apex12: Thanks! Yeah lol, one USB looking drive was all it took to take control of their whole ass system, that's worse than a joke of a cybersec system.

SilentRobin: Thank you, and believe me, this distinction in tactics is something I truly intend to explore.

Guest: Drones are a unique case, as I've never seen Remnant natives use drones in the same way we do here on Earth.

E31174: Lol, yeah I really did find that inconsistent, before Blake was ragging on Weiss for even talking bad about the White Fang, 1 volume later and she along with the rest of RWBY (unintentionally, but still) kills a bunch, I decided to be more consistent here.

Guest: Well he is very clearly a bit of an idiot, a pacifist one too, I feel like the war made him jaded on conflict and thought that demilitarization would prevent one from happening again.

StormWolf16: Whoops, that's a detail I missed, thanks for pointing that out! Here's that update by the way.

Krannesca: Here it is.

Acemoon: Thanks, but unfortunately you discovered while it was… not so active, but here it is again!

Guest: Exactly, in CnC nobody takes any prisoners.

Chalangka: You're based!

Arakile: Probably.

IX404: Here is one!

Aight, that's all the review responses done. First I wanna get out the way why this took so long, the first is that less time was afforded to me than I thought, for reasons I can't control, this was the case. The second is… Just look at this chapter, it's fucking LONG and I won't lie I had a difficult time writing it, not just for the length but because I kept backtracking over myself and thinking "isn't this kinda boring?" and kept trying to find some way to insert action or interesting plot points then at some point I realized that none of that was the point of this chapter, what this chapter is for setup for the Mistral arc (along with many other plot points).

That's right, it might not have been shown here, but this will be very important in the upcoming taking on of the bandits of Mistral as well as a few other plots I have in store.

Anyway, I hope you all liked this chapter even if it did take 6 months! I'll try not to make promises on "soon" anymore but I will say I have gotten started with the next chapter.

Before I head I'd like to add that vmoneywashere made this story a TV Tropes! Check it out.

See y'all in the next one!