CHAPTER 10: OPERATION INDOCTRINATION

1200 Hours, August 21, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Continent of Sanas

Ruby quietly ate her food while she mentally went over some things in her head. A week had passed and she was going to be tested on some subjects as well as given a physical test to ensure that she was able to hold her own. Between her physical training and her lessons, these past seven days had flown by rather quickly, something that came as a surprise to her.

The first day, she had absolutely hated her life. She doubted her decision, asked herself why she had done something like this.

The answer to her question came quickly once she thought back to the things that she had been through and the things she had done. She had nearly been killed by Grimm, she had seen bandits destroy an entire village and kill innocent people, and she had killed a man with her own two hands. That last deed in particular continued to replay in her mind when she slept; she could recall it with such vivid detail.

The face of the bandit.

The fire crystal burning in his hand.

The sound of the M6D as it discharged a round.

The fish eyes of the dead man.

The first night with that nightmare, the silver-eyed girl had awoken in a sweat and failed in her attempt to calm herself down. The Master Chief took notice of her then and when he asked her what was wrong, Ruby said that she was reliving the kill.

In response to her. he stated that in her case, she had no reason to feel guilt; she had pulled the trigger because the bandit was intending to kill innocent civilians and the two of them. He told her that killing the bandit was the right thing to do. It was unfortunate that a life had to be ended, but their priority at the end of the day was protecting those that couldn't protect themselves as well as their own lives, plain and simple.

With that being said, the Chief also said that no matter what, killing was wrong, even with regards to what they were doing. No matter the intent of the bandit, he was still a living person, no different than them. No matter what their priorities were, pulling the trigger on anyone meant potentially killing them. The green-armored man reminded Ruby that she should never forget what it meant to kill, no matter what.

This duality had the former aspiring huntress confused. She wanted to get rid of the bad memories, but instead she was being told to never let go of them. It didn't make any sense to her right now. How was she supposed to get better if she kept holding on to that stuff? Wouldn't that just make things counterproductive?

More than anything, Ruby wanted to pursue the topic and question him about why he said what he did, but just like asking about his weapons and armor, the Master Chief wouldn't speak to her any further on the subject, instead telling her that now was not the time. He was focused on training her up, not teaching her about right and wrong.

For now, the past ten minutes had been spent with him quizzing her on random knowledge that she had been learning over the week. So far, she had answered everything correctly and she had no intention of finding out what would happen if she got it wrong.

"Recite the phonetic alphabet." The Master Chief ordered. "Go."

"Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf." Ruby paused to take a quick break. "Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa."

Relearning the alphabet like this had actually been a straightforward task. It wasn't necessarily learning a whole new language. It was more like retooling what she learned as a child into something more codified and specific.

"Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform." Ruby thought for a moment. "Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu."

"Good." The Chief nodded. "Now the numbers."

"Wun, Too, Tree, Fower, Fife." Ruby still had to get used to a couple pronunciations. "Six, Seven, Ait, Niner, Zeero."

She was expecting more questions, but none came.

"Your knowledge is solid." The helmet nodded once, apparently satisfied that she was absorbing things fast. "You're making progress."

Hearing him say that made her do a double take. Not once this entire week had she even been given a compliment for good work. It was just one thing to the next without pause; it made the fifteen-year old wonder just how cut out she was for this. Hearing something akin to an appraisal of what she had accomplished made her both happy and perplexed.

"Um, thanks." Ruby cautiously accepted his words.

"After we eat, we'll practice marksmanship." The Master Chief looked out towards an open field. "I've set up some targets for us to practice with."

"Oh, okay!" Ruby felt excitement inside, but somewhat restrained the full extent of it for fear that she might get reprimanded. "So… what'll we be using?"

"This." The Chief retrieved a weapon from behind him. "The M392 Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR for short."

"Yes!" Ruby pumped her fist in the air. "I love marksmanship!"

With a new reason to feel excited, she quickly tore through the rest of her meal before cleaning up her face and swiftly moving to the makeshift shooting range, running to where they would take position rather than using her semblance. As ecstatic as she was to get going, this was still training and she had to remind herself about all the necessary small things to keep in mind like not using her aura or semblances to help her in any physical capacity.

Before she began shooting, she was instructed in basic functionality, the ammunition that it used, how to take it apart to clean it and then reassemble it, and how to hold it for maximum effectiveness. Naturally being a weapon enthusiast and wanting to do her teacher proud, she didn't miss a word that he said.

Once she proved that she was trustworthy enough to handle the weapon, she was directed to the targets. In place of bullseye targets or paper pinup of a person's outline, there were instead carefully-section tree trunks with roughly-marked rings indicating levels of accuracy. They were all scattered anywhere from as close as ten meters to the farthest distance which was 1000 meters.

How long did it take him to set this all up? Ruby couldn't help but wonder. And when did he set it up. He certainly didn't do it anytime during the day.

Starting from a prone position, the girl with black hair ending in red tips shouldered the weapon and looked down the mounted scope. She was quick to acquire her first target at ten meters out.

"Fire when ready." The Master Chief told her. "You get five shots per target. Make them count."

"Roger that." Ruby sounded off. "First target sighted, 10 meters out, 12 o'clock. Firing."

She fired the first round to test how the kick felt against her body. It was more powerful than she was expecting, but it wasn't unmanageable. More importantly, from where she laying, there appeared to be a hold about halfway to the center of the first target.

"Hit." The Chief affirmed what she saw.

Ruby fired again after a few more seconds. This time, being prepared, she was able to hit closer to the center."

"Hit."

Her third shot hit with a mere centimeter to the center.

"Hit."

The fourth round hit dead on target.

"Hit."

The final shot struck the same place her previous shot did.

"Hit." The man in armor said. "You've clearly spent lots of time practicing."

"Yeah, Crescent Rose and I did lots of target practice together." Ruby nodded her head, smiling sadly at the memories. "I'm just glad that I got something out of all my previous training."

"We're not done here yet." The Master chief pointed. "Next target."

"Copy that." Ruby banished her memories from her mind to rededicate herself here. "Target twenty-five meters out, one o'clock. Firing now."

The rest of the afternoon was spent familiarizing herself with the DMR, learning how best to handle the rifle in her hands, how to reload it faster so that she could engage targets quickly, and the timing for being able to achieve numerous successful killshots without losing accuracy. All the while, she had to keep track of the wind around her, the light that affected how much she could see, and any factor that might affect her bullet trajectory.

Now this was fun for her. If she could, she would love to do nothing but practice with weapons and perfect her technique, but unfortunately her training wasn't just about being an excellent sharpshooter. Tomorrow, it would be right back to her morning physical routine and then some lectures, the stuff that was taught to get through, but necessary for her. Still, no matter how tough things would get, she wasn't about to call it quits now.

Ruby pulled the trigger again, having cycled through all prior targets with ease. Now she was shooting at 800 meters out and she was having to work harder to achieve the ideal kill shot.

A challenge to be sure, but still fun.

Halo - - - RWBY

2250 Hours, August 21, 2557 (Military Calendar)

The Master Chief waited until Ruby was fast asleep before he once again conducted his own training with his ability to summon items. His time spent learning his seemingly magical ability had been productive. He had learned quite a bit regarding how it worked and what were its limitations.

The first rule that he had discovered quickly was that when he summoned a weapon, the given ammunition that came with it would last only for a single day, twenty-four hours. He couldn't summon a different weapon and then resummon the weapon that he desired for more ammunition. If he summoned a BR55 Battle Rifle right now and he needed it for a firefight, then he would have to wait until 0000 hours tomorrow in order to reacquire a full stock of magazines.

The second rule was that he could only have two weapons on his person at a time. When summoning a weapon, the one he was currently holding in his hand would be replaced with the one he was visualizing at the time. The one on his back or nearby his person would remain the same as would its ammunition source. This rule didn't apply to Ruby and the M6D that she carried seeing as it was now her weapon, another small detail that he would remember.

The third rule and the most recently discovered one was that ammunition could be summoned separately from the weapon designated to it, but the previous second rule and its intricacies applied.

Additionally, Spartan 117 had measured the time it took to summon a weapon with MJOLNIR's internal clock. Although varying depending upon what he chose, he could narrow it down to anywhere from three to seven seconds. This was important because in the event that he might run out of ammunition during a firefight, he could fall back on another suitable weapon to use for whatever situation he might find himself in, although he hoped that it wouldn't have to come to that.

The man in green armor chose not to experiment with Covenant or Promethean weapons. He felt that those would be better served as an ace up his sleeve seeing as this world didn't appear to have anything in the way of directed energy weapons. Remnant was heavily reliant upon dust and bullets incorporated the substance to a substantial degree. In short, it was to his advantage to keep some of his armament close to the chest.

Another question in John's mind was whether or not he would be able to summon anything other than weapons like vehicles. Assuming he could, he wondered what sort of effort it would take to make that a reality. At this point, it was safe to say that his being able to form weapons from nowhere had no negative or adverse affects on his physical health, none that he could consciously grasp at any rate. Would summoning a vehicle be the same as summoning a weapon? Would he just need to be able to describe it in as precise detail as he could and it would just come to him?

His choice to refrain from attempting this idea was simple: it wasn't strictly necessary as this time. Once the eight weeks of training with Ruby was done, then he would give it more thought. As important as it was to learn how to endure long marches over vast distances, it would be beneficial if they had a vehicle to help them to cover more ground in a shorter amount of time. It was food for thought.

After he spent about an hour practicing, he then read through his personal notes detailing all the Grimm he had encountered. He wanted to account for each species, how big or small the could be, their combative capabilities, and ways to take them from least effective to most effective. His efforts were helped by his recruit, who provided whatever information she could during their lessons.

Regionally speaking, wild Grimm were known to be more dangerous than those that were closer to the walls of the four kingdoms. That was because with time came age and wisdom, something that many in the wilds had. They would not dare approach civilization unless there was an opening in which severe damage could be done.

It only served to pose more questions in the Master Chief's mind. He couldn't conceive of a reason for these monstrosities to exist beyond being used as expendable, yet powerful tools of war. Then again, the same could be said of the Flood, but unlike the parasite, there was no means of keeping the Grimm in check. As far as he could see, they existed and Mankind was left to fend for itself against a threat that had no clear point of origin.

Even more amazing was that not even huntsmen and huntresses seemed to know what exactly they were fighting. They were only trained in how to dispatch them by combat. This made even less sense than the black and white abominations themselves. Thousands of years of history repeating itself all over again with no end in sight.

It was madness.

If no one else was going to find out why things were this way, then he would have to find out himself and hopefully do something about it. It was a lot better than wandering Remnant endlessly and indirectly feeding into a system that had been perpetuated for as long as this planet's recorded history began.

The spartan checked his clock to see that he had about five hours before he needed to wake up Ruby. He would need at least four hours of sleep in order to function properly. An extra hour of sleep seemed okay. He was finished with what he wanted to get through.

Yet the idea of sleeping any longer than he needed for full operation was something he didn't look forward to. This small but perceptible feeling had been occurring to him every night before he closed his eyes and let dreams into the forefront of his mind. He knew the reason why but he refused to think about it. The more he did, the less he was focused on what was most important here.

John lifted his head up and for a moment, he swore that he could see the very clear and distinct form of her. He wanted to speak her name, call out to her, tell her that he was going to get her back to Halsey and everything would work out, just like it always had. She had once said winning was what he did best.

If that was the case, then why did he feel like he had lost this time?

The man with over thirty years of active duty realized that he had indeed reached out his right arm to an individual that was no longer "alive." This was nothing more than a foolish wish to see a close and trusted friend, but no matter how much he wanted events to turn out a much different way, he didn't deal in delusions and fantasy. He was logical and rational and grounded in the reality that was objective and without bias.

"You're not fooling me." The Master Chief stared down the false image. "You're not her. She's dead and gone."

He felt his grip on the DMR tighten and he felt ready to point it in the direction of the person that looked like one of his most trusted companions. He refused to say her name or acknowledge her in any way.

In response to his blunt and decidedly harsh words, the image adopted an expression of longing and sadness, an expression that he had seen on her face before, but never had it had this much of an impact on him as it did now. For a moment, he forgot that what he was seeing was just something that looked like her. Once he had his moment, he snapped out of it and rose from his tree log seat.

The image disappeared when he blinked, the dark night around him returning in full. There was nothing else worth taking note of. It was just another normal night filled with the occasional breeze of wind and the sound of night time animals.

The Spartan tilted his head down and to his left where Ruby still lay asleep, curled up into a ball. She didn't appear to be having a pleasant time dreaming and it wasn't hard to guess what was keeping her up at night. Her PTSD was still present in her, even as her days were occupied with training. Despite her childish and quirky behavior, she seemed able to separate that part of herself when training, giving her absolute best.

Imagine that. John couldn't help but find a similarity that they shared. In order to hide our pain, we bury ourselves in our work to try and forget.

After taking another minute to study his trainee's visage, he settled back down on the makeshift seat of his, leaning forward and clasping his hands together. He then tilted his downward.

It was time to face his nightmares.

RWBY - - - Halo

1300 Hours, August 28, 2557 (Military Calendar)

With time, Ruby had managed to establish that her physical condition was growing and that she could keep to a strict schedule of cardiovascular endurance coupled with calisthenic exercises meant to increase her strength to help her with the things in the field that would demand she be strong. With that came a new set of responsibilities to take on as well as additional training to tackle.

Two weeks of training and still things could only ramp up from here.

Today, they were going to be doing some surveillance and reconnaissance training. Recently, they had visited a nearby village and accepted a job to take out a nest of particularly annoying pests. By themselves, they weren't much of a threat, but when in a horde, the amount of damage they could do was significant.

They were Lancers.

The Master Chief, as always, took the job without so much as flinching, but Ruby still had her own personal reservations about fighting the Grimm. It had been a little while since she had last been in close proximity to one, but that neither here nor there. They were both going to have to face the monsters sooner or later and she knew better than to issue a complaint to her superior.

Fortunately, they weren't going to merely rush into a nest without first formulating a strategy of some kind, hence their need for reconnaissance. For the vast majority of this morning, they had been doing nothing but remain perched atop a very large hill observing the mouth of a cave which was reported to be where the Lancers gathered in large numbers.

So far, they had only seen a few at a time go in or come out. At most, the largest group they sighted consisted of seven individual contacts. Again, due to the low threat that one of these bugs posed, there wasn't much concern about a potential engagement. Even for a rookie huntsman student, that was manageable.

Ruby didn't realize how tense she had grown until she became aware that her left hand was clenching into a fist and uncurling many times over. She would have never known about it had the Chief not told her and ordered her to calm down, which she managed to do surprisingly quickly. Telling herself to calm down wasn't going to work out, that much she could say for certain, but when it came to following his head, she could do that.

Weird.

While observing the cave, the girl with silver eyes also took note of the distance from their position, which she estimated to be about 400 meters. Also, she drew a meticulously-drawn sketch of the entrance, including all relevant details. It was important that she understand how to do this because if for any reason that her scroll was unavailable to her, she would have something else to use that would be just as effective. It helped that as a weapon enthusiast and having personally made her old weapon Crescent Rose by herself, she had excellent drawing skills. Blueprints and sketching really did come in handy here.

"Four hours." Ruby checked her clock. "We've been observing this cave for four hours, but we haven't spotted anything remotely close to a horde."

"And we might not see anything for the rest of the day." The Master Chief informed her. "But this is definitely where they've gathered."

"How can you tell?" Ruby glanced up at her NCO who was kneeling.

"There are a lot of leaves on the ground surrounding this place." The Chief pointed out to her. "A lot of them are colors that you normally see in the fall, but I am seeing plenty of green leaves scattered too."

"Okay." Ruby took a moment to look around and confirm what he said. "But how does that tell us that a Lancer horde is here?"

"Lancers fly everywhere they go." The Master Chief explained. "When they do, large groups tend to generate a lot of wind and air that affects their environment. There's also the fact that Lancers appear to be more tactical than many of Grimm species."

Ruby blinked. "How… do you know all of that?"

The Chief looked her in the eye before resuming his attention on the cave. "I've been doing my research and making my own judgements. You should too."

That was kind of amazing how he was able to synthesize knowledge like that. She definitely wouldn't have been able to come up with something like that. Now that she gave it more thought, there was also the fact that experience had a part in it. It was known that the Grimm generally mimicked the behaviors and patterns of their animal counterparts. Really, anyone could figure it out, but before all of this, she had preferred getting her hands dirty rather than reading and theorizing.

Ruby shifted her position slightly where she laid prone, ignoring the feeling of soreness against her body. In the past, she would have done everything in her power to be more comfortable, but it was stressed to her numerous times by the Master Chief that she needed to get used to being uncomfortable and even miserable; there could be a time where her endurance was what allowed her to survive what others couldn't. She understood what he was saying, but it was still arduous adjusting.

The former huntress trainee readjusted the rangefinder that she had been given to use. This thing was far more powerful than the ones that she had used during her sniper training. It could see distances of many kilometers. Plus, it had so many different settings that let her see in various ways. Thermal vision, night vision, image magnification, and those were just a few of the settings. It was being able to use this fancy gear that made the grueling training more bearable.

And speaking of equipment, Ruby had to wonder what she would be using once she had completed her training. She was still a long ways off and even after eight weeks, she would be far from done. No doubt she would gain a wealth of knowledge while on the job as well followed by more training. Such was the life that she now led and she was going to be awesome in all of it, otherwise it would be a very awkward conversation with her family.

Although she was far from the relative safety of Patch, she couldn't help but miss it in many ways. Only now was it dawning on her that there were so many memories and comforts there that she had taken for granted. Now, as she fought tooth and nail everyday to become something much different than a huntress, she always wondered what would have happened if things had turned out differently.

Those hypotheticals never lasted any longer than a few moments because she knew exactly what she was getting into when she agreed to become a sailor. Even if the title didn't make sense for her in light of their location, it was the only calling that made sense to her. That was what she thought when she left the comfort of home and she still maintained that viewpoint now. Two weeks into her training and she was still here.

Now she had to survive for six more weeks and gods know how much longer. Whatever may happen, she would have to learn to live her life, good or bad. Nobody was here to hold her hand or provide some sugary words to help her sleep better.

"I've got movement to our two o'clock." The Master Chief reported. "Three lancers, small stature. You see them?"

"Yeah." Ruby sighted them through her viewfinder. "I see them."

"That brings the total number sighted to thirty-nine." The Chief noted out loud. "None of them appear to be carrying anything."

"It's weird that they're not attacking right now." Ruby fell back onto what she knew about the insect-like species. "This is usually their time to…"

Lancers were notorious for being daytime attackers and sightings of them at night were less common, although still possible. Assuming that these ones were returning from an attack, then they had already gotten some prey and they were returning to their territory to rest and regain their strength for another attack.

"They must've found some prey." The Master Chief spoke what she thought. "They're returning from a hunt."

The even tone he always talked in seemed even more flat than was used to hearing. Maybe she was reading too much into it, but she could swear that she heard his inflection change ever-so slightly.

Her eyes returned to her rangefinder and she found her hand shaking the device, causing a clattering noise. She grasped her hand with her free one and steadied herself. Now was not time to be freaking out.

"Chief." Ruby said softly. "Orders?"

Halo - - - RWBY

1600 Hours, August 29, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Kingdom of Vale

Yang Xiao Long had many words to describe how she was feeling right now. Angry, sad, depressed, livid, outraged, annoyed, frustrated, and many more. Some of them might mean the same thing, but she didn't care about that.

What she did care about was that Ruby Rose, her only sister, was gone and not coming home. Two weeks and not a word from the girl. Her letter was looking less like a joke and more like a reality. Even with the proof of Crescent Rose being left at home, the blonde brawler and her father held out hope that it was nothing more than an elaborate joke.

It didn't look like it was.

To make matters worse, it wasn't just Ruby being rebellious or stupid of her own choosing. Some GUY had corrupted her baby sister and convinced her to do something. It made Yang even more angry that she didn't even know the details about what that something was, but she was going to find out, make no mistake about that.

That was easier said than done seeing as her sister had made sure to leave no traces of where she was going. It appeared that she had indeed cut herself off in a way that would prevent any form of contact. She wasn't responding to her scroll, none of their fellow students at Signal Academy nor the faculty could say where the cookie lover had gone, not even Qrow knew where she was and he was good at tracking people.

That just made this kidnapper all the more suspicious in Yang's mind. Ruby had known this guy for less than two weeks before going off with him and to this day barely a month. How could she learn to trust someone so fast?

The buxom girl sighed as she leaned over on Bumblebee, trying to think about where her little sister had gone. The letter left at home had been vague, which gave no indication as to where the little combat skirt wearing squirt had gone. She could be anywhere in the world at this point.

"ARGH!" Yang held her head in her hands. "FUCK!"

Once Ruby was back home, they would be having a very long discussion about how she couldn't go off with people she had known for such a short amount of time. Clearly, those talks about stranger danger did not get through.

A buzzing in her pocket had the blonde girl grabbing her scroll and seeing that she was getting a call from Qrow.

"You got anything?" Yang didn't even bother with a greeting. "Please tell me something, anything."

"Yeah, I've got something." Qrow replied. "But this comes from an eyewitness, so don't just take my word for it."

"It's better than nothing." Yang argued. "Spill."

"There were some wall guards who reported a girl with Ruby's physical description venturing into the wilds with someone in armor."

"Good, tell me more." Yang pressed. "Who's the guy?! Where did they go?! Did he force her?!"

"They don't know who the guy was, but it didn't look like Ruby was forced to go." Qrow elaborated. "And they were reported to have been heading southwest."

It was good enough for a start.

I want to start off this author's note with an announcement, one which is familiar to some of my readers. I am enlisting with the United States Army. The details of my enlistment can be found on my profile. Bear in mind that all the information is subject to change due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

So back to the story. Training is well underway and Yang has taken the initiative to find Ruby. Will she find her? Who knows? Well, I do because I'm the author, but can any of you guess?

Still the emotional distance between the Chief and Ruby is vast. It's got to be that way for a time because for one thing, John does NOT give out trust easily and Ruby is awkward and views her savior as an idol more than anything else at this time, so neither are ready to open up about anything.

So what do you guys think? Reviews are always appreciated.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you're all doing as well as you can given the state of the world.

"Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance."

Virgil