Before we start, an announcement.
I wrote a Puppy Arc oneshot for an arkos collection called "RWBY Misadventures, Arkos Edition", made by a friend of mine, noble4259.
Go check it out. It has a little twist that I might implement later in this fic.
The ramp steps to the ship were too steep for Jaune to climb so Ironwood had to pick up and carry him. Jaune decided he didn't want to be carried and instead sat on his shoulder like a parrot.
While walking through the halls and soldiers and sailors stood out of the way in a salute, it was more than obvious that they weren't looking at the general.
"Sir!" A pair of soldiers moved to the side of the hall and saluted.
"Troopers," Ironwood saluted back.
"Arf," in his peripheral vision he could see Jaune salute them too.
Smart dog.
"Sir, I..." Winter came out of the comms room and paused in front of him. "Uh… sir?"
"Yes specialist?"
"Who is this?"
"This is Jaune."
"Arf!" Ironwood could feel his tail wagging.
"I'm watching him as a favor for a little bit."
Winter stared at Jaune for a little bit. "Why is he on your shoulder?"
"... I suppose it's because he likes to feel tall."
"Arf!" Apparently that was the right answer as his tail wagged faster for a little bit.
"...right," Winter coughed into her fist and stood at attention. "Sir, you got a call from the council. They want an update."
"Of course they do," Ironwood sighed and took Jaune off his shoulder. "Can you watch him for a moment?"
Winter looked at Jaune as he hopped down and sat right next to her. "I don't believe that will be a problem, General."
Ironwood nodded. Reports to the council were tedious but thankfully this one was relatively quick.
The door to the hallway took half a second to open. It took Winter a quarter of a second to stand back at attention and adopt a serious face. It took Jaune two seconds to realize he wasn't getting his tummy tickled anymore, another second to realize Ironwood was there, and one more second to sit up straight at attention with a serious face next to Winter.
"Everything fine?" He asked.
"Yes sir," Winter replied. "Jaune was a very good boy."
"Arf!"
"Good, thank you. Come along Jaune." They walked down the hall and Jaune looked back at Winter.
'Wuv you,' she mouthed to him.
Jaune smiled and waged his tail to show that he also wuved the lady who smelled like Weiss.
Ironwood was inspecting the rank and file of troops when he got a message from Glynda. He trusted the troops to watch Jaune while he left the room to answer. She just wanted to know how Jaune was doing. When he got back, he let out the longest internal sigh of his life.
"Trooper," he turned to the nearest soldier, "would you say I was gone for no more than three minutes?"
"Y-yes sir," the soldier did his best to hold his composure, but Ironwood could tell that behind the helmet he was scared shitless. The other soldiers nearby shared similar expressions.
"Now then, in such a short amount of time," he faced forward to the Paladin-290 mech with a closed cockpit, "how did this happen?"
"Bark bark!" Jaune was just letting everyone know he was still stuck in the Mech.
"I'm waiting for an answer," he said. More silence. "Preferable today."
"Pictures sure," the same soldier said.
"...pictures?"
The soldier reluctantly handed the General his scroll. Ironwood scrolled through several recent photos. One of them lined up in formation with Jaune in their center, one with their helmets off and Jaune with a helmet on and saluting the cameraman, and several more with the final one being Jaune sitting in the Paladin's pilot seat.
Ironwood noticed how much happier the soldiers seemed to be in the pictures.
"Ok," he sighed and handed the scroll back, who seemed to be surprised he wasn't told he had latrine duty for a week. "Do we have a way to get out?"
"Well, we did have a crowbar," one soldier said.
"And where is it?"
"Broken sir, along with the spares."
"Right. Jaune, can you hear me?"
"Bark!"
He assumed that was a yes. "Can you see a switch by the monitor on the left?"
"...aro?"
"Sorry, the lower monitor."
There was a pause and suddenly the mech activated and stood straight up.
"Paladin online."
"Jaune, wrong switch!"
Panic barking followed.
"IFF system offline."
"Jaune!"
More panic barking followed.
"Target acquired." It raised a gun to Ironwood. "Firing main cannon."
The soldiers dove for cover, Jaune whimpered, and Ironwood sighed as he was consumed by an explosion. The soldiers gulped and Jaune finally got the cockpit opened and stared in fear. The smoke cleared and Ironwood stood unfazed, though covered in soot.
"Too bad that didn't kill me."
Jaune was bored now.
For the past hour or so, he was in Ironwood's while he did some paperwork on his computer. Getting the passcode… password… passphrase, whatever, it was written on a sticky note next to the computer and he spotted and memorized it instantly. So now, all Jaune could do was rest and wait.
At least Ironwood let him lay down on his desk, much better than the floor. Another bonus was that when Ironwood talked to himself while working, it was actually quiet. Some of the other students at Beacon could learn a thing or two from that. Seriously they could think they're whispering but he could hear them clearly from across the room.
"Gah!"
Jaune jumped at the sudden scream. Ironwood reeled back and grabbed his arm, withering side to side. Jaune didn't know what was going on or what to do so he started panicking. He panicked and froze when Ironwood just tore his arm off!
"Fucking hell," Ironwood, slammed his detached arm down on the table. Jaune was frozen with fear until he noticed a lack of gushing blood, and then realized it was a robot arm. He wasn't scared anymore, but still shocked as his head darted between the arm and where it was once attached.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you" Ironwood apologized as he opened a panel on the prosthetic and fiddled with some knobs and switches. "Lost my real arm years ago. Still get bad bouts of phantom pains every now and then."
Jaune stared at the general in thought for a few moments and looked at his own paw soft whine. It was a sombering thought. Whether he was a dog or human, any fight could have been his last. Despite coming out on top, he very easily could not have.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Ironwood patted Jaune's head and reattached his arm. "Though I may have lost my human arm long ago, this prosthetic isn't so much a curse, it's a blessing, reminding myself to adapt and overcome. It proves that I'm still standing despite such horrible injuries, and that not even the loss of limbs can keep a good soldier down."
Jaune sat up straight and gave him a salute. He couldn't help but have respect for him. He almost felt bad about tricking him in his and Ozpin's game.
"James, welcome back," Glynda greeted. "Hello Jaune!"
"Arf!" She crouched so she could catch him in her arms. "I missed you too. I hope everything went well?"
"Yes. Jaune was a well-behaved lad," Ironwood said truthfully… well, truthfully if you forget the Paladin incident, but that wasn't his fault.
"Never took you for a dog sitter James," Ozpin commented.
"Well, I'm just full of surprises aren't I Ozpin? It was a pleasure watching over Jaune, I've never seen a dog with intelligence as high as his and would gladly look after him again if Glynda asked of me," he responded, then looked over to see Jaune tapping on Glynda's scroll before she quickly shoved it in Ozpin's face.
The headmaster spoke before he had time to ponder. "James, would your passcode happen to be '110 Montauk'?"
Ironwood's face faltered. That was indeed the passphrase. But how?! He had security at its maximum! Men were stationed at every possible entrance! How could-... the answer slowly came to him when he looked at Jaune, who wagged his tail while looking at him smugly.
"... son of a bitch."
Yeah I couldn't think of a passphrase so I used '110 Montauk' after watching some SCP videos. I'm going to hell for referencing that in a story like this.