RWBY Sisterhood, Chapter 1
"Taking a freight train to Vale, I guess you wanted to save some money on the trip?".
Ruby looked away from the window to see one of the guards for the train standing next to her seat. "Kind of. I wouldn't be able to fly to the capital until tomorrow and the commuter trains cost more. My teachers also told me that it's safer to travel by freight train as the security will usually be better."
The man sat down across from here. "Well for some people their cargo is more important than a person. Even so it doesn't mean something bad can't happen. So what is taking you to the capitol?"
Ruby smiled. "My sister is going to be attending Beacon Academy in the fall. I just finished up my first year at Signal Academy so I wanted to go and see her as soon as school got out. She finished up at Pharos Academy and started working in the capitol as soon as she graduated."
The man looked out the window. "So you and your sister are both going to become huntsman?". The man's tone changed from being optimistic to a concerned fatherly tone.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
The man turned to her. "It isn't an easy job. I did it for a few years before I decided to stop. You can train as much as you can at the academy but even if you graduate it doesn't mean you are invincible."
Ruby looked at him. "What do you mean if I graduate? I might not be a genius but I know I can past any of the test I get."
The man smiled and stood up. "When I say 'if', it isn't a question of academics, it is a question if you will survive. Every first year class has a few students that die, it could be a weapons accident, a horde appears, or just idiots fighting amongst themselves. In the end around twenty percent drop out because they realize that being a huntsman is far more dangerous than they expect."
Looking down at Ruby the man saw that she was listening but didn't care, she was determined to be a huntsman. Starting to walk away he stopped and turned. "Just remember this, take care of yourself before you take care of others. You can't help those around you if you are falling apart."
Ruby smiled and went back to looking out the window, the sun was starting to set. Being at the read of the train she could see the front as it started to go around a curve. Farther ahead was the advance car, checking the route for any Grimm that might be in front, there was also a car behind the train that was checking to make sure that there were no Grimm trying to follow. Putting her headphones on she kept on staring out the window knowing that it was going to be a couple of hours before they would be arriving in the capitol.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
About an hour out from the capitol, red lights came on. Ruby took off her headphones as an announcement came on. "All hands, this is the chief, report to combat stations. We have a horde of Grimm inbound. We are trying to get them to follow the rear car which is heading away from the train but they are not taking the bait. We have put out an emergency call for assistance but we haven't gotten a reply. As of right now the plan is to push through and outrun the horde. If this fails we will abandon the train and evacuate on the front and rear engines. Remember, stay calm, stay focused and we will get through this like we have before."
Ruby looked around the car and saw the huntsman in it gearing up. Despite the fact a horde was coming after them none of them seemed scared. She wasn't sure if this was due to how the chief was calm on the overhead or if it was just something they were used to doing from being huntsman for so long.
"New girl, here is your gear." The man who had talked to her earlier was dropping off a helmet and body armor to her. "The helmet has a radio and HUD system, it will let you talk to everyone else. The armor is the smallest rack system we got so it should fit you. Once you get it on go with Carl, he'll be assisting you."
Ruby just looked at him for a second. "I'm getting to fight?"
"We have a horde coming our way that's bigger than any I've seen, we need everyone and unless I'm mistaken your weapon is some sort of rifle. If you can't fight tell me now, otherwise kit up."
Ruby's eyes widen. "Don't worry I can definitely shoot."
"Well good hunting" The man gave Ruby a smile as he headed off.
Ruby got her armor and helmet on and went over to Carl. "Hi, I'm Ruby, I was told to help you?"
Carl looked Ruby over. "Well girl, you're about to become a woman today. Follow me up.". He headed to the door and Ruby followed. Going outside they went to the top of the car. "What it the range of your rifle?"
"Depends on the round but around a kilometer is the farthest I can get." Ruby said. "The thing is with this wind and the train moving I doubt I can get that far."
"That's fine. I'm going to be spotting for you as well as acting as your shield. The train has turrets that will take care of the Grimm as they are farther out, we'll be taking care of the ones that get past them. Have you ever killed a Grimm before?"
"A few, my family lives out in the woods."
Carl smiled. "Good. The horde is about ten minutes from getting in rage of our guns. Hopefully we won't need to do anything. But remember listen to what I say. If something happens to me, don't play the hero. Retreat to the engine, it is heavily armored and it a save haven.". The next few minutes was spent giving Ruby a crash course on how to use her helmet as well as hooking her to the train so she wouldn't fall off. Once he was done Ruby looked around and saw there was another team on the car behind them looking out in the same direction.
"Can I ask you something?"
Carl looked over at Ruby. "What is it?"
"Why is a horde coming after us? Are we carrying something that is attracting them?"
"Who knows. We're not smugglers and nothing was put in the cargo that might attract them. Granted someone could have lied about what was on the shipping log and we are carrying something that the Grimm are after. If that happened then I'll make sure you get a few hits in on the person who decided to sneak it on the train."
Ruby was surprised by how relaxed he was. There was easily over a couple hundred Grimm coming after them but he was treating like a minor annoyance. Hearing the other huntsman on the radio no one was scared or afraid. The biggest complaint she was hearing what that they might not make it into the capitol before their favorite restaurant closed for the night.
"All hands, the horde is still heading towards us. We will be slowing down slightly before we start shooting. We still haven't gotten a response on the emergency beacon so we are on our own. Good hunting.". Ruby could feel the train starting to slow down. She could hear the sound of doors opening and looking down the train she was seeing turrets coming out of the top of some of the cars. Looking on her helmet she could see the radar signature of the horde, it was just a wall of red moving towards the train.
All of the guns opened up. Ruby just stared at seeing all of them shooting into the forest. Looking out into the forest she could see that the forest was getting leveled. After the opening salvo the guns switched to a firing pattern. Looking at the radar on her helmet she could see that the horde was still coming but the turret guns were holding them back.
"Ok, we are going to be up soon. Just relax.". Looking at the radar again she could see that the Grimm were starting to spread out. The turrets were effective in holding the horde back when it was coming as a single wave but now that it was splitting it made it harder for the turrets to hold them back. "Let the turrets get the main body, we'll take care of the stragglers."
Even though it was dark her helmet made it where she could see around like it was daytime. Looking back at the radar she could start making out a few single dots moving towards the train.
"Carl, have your shooter take the long shot, if they get past her we'll take the follow up.".
"Sounds good. Ok, I'll mark them, once you have it in your sights then take the shot."
"Let's do this.". Ruby looked through her scope and saw some Grimm running towards them. A dot appeared one of them. Taking the shot she was low and to the left of the Grimm. Immediately she reloaded and fired again, the next one was higher up but still to the left. Going for the third shot she hit the Grimm in the body. "Ok, I've adjusted, which one is next?"
Carl started to mark Grimm one after another. Once it was hit the second team would check to see if it was dead or just wounded. They quickly took care of the stragglers that moved away from the main body. Looking back at the radar it didn't look like the number of Grimm had gone down.
"Carl, is this normal, having this many?"
Carl took a second to answer her. "No, this is a lot of Grimm, I've seen hordes but I've never seen this many come after a train. They are after something. The best thing to do is stay calm. If they are after something on the train then we'll abandon it. It isn't ideal but this is beyond anything we expected.". As soon as he finished they could hear an explosion off in the distance.
"All hands, emergency stop". That was the only warning they got before all of the brakes clamped down in unison. All the people on top of the cars were hooked on so they didn't fly off. The turret guns kept on firing but with the immediate stop it made a hole that the Grimm could start coming through.
"You ok?". Ruby looked at Carl and nodded. "Good, we're moving." Carl unhooked her and pulled her to the engine. The second team stayed and opened fire on the Grimm that was nearby. Once they were on top of the engine Carl had Ruby get back into position. "Stay here and open file on anything that comes towards us. Jessie, we're good.". The second team got up and moved over.
"Ok, you two stay up here and shoot at anything that comes, we'll take the ground. Kill if you can, if not wound the big ones but leave the small ones. If Jessie tells you something, then do it." With that Carl and the other spotter went onto the ground waiting for the Grimm to arrive.
"Hi, I'm Jessie, I didn't get your name?"
Ruby looked at her. "I'm Ruby."
"Nice to meet you. Just stay calm and everything will work out." With that Jessie started to shoot at the Grimm. Ruby looked through her scope and started to shoot as well.
"All hands. We are abandoning the train. The rails in front have been blown. Evacuate to the rear engine. Prepare charges.".
"Well at least we are already where we need to be. Just keep shooting and we'll be out of this soon."
Ruby wanted to ask what was going on but at this point she just kept on shooting at the Grimm. While the Grimm were moving to the front and rear of the train they were avoiding the engines. Looking out to the front of the train she could see people starting to move across the top heading towards them. There was a sound on her radar letting her know there was something coming from behind. Turning around she could see there were aircraft coming in. Her first thought was that it was help from Vale but the people coming down from the cables were instead hooking them up to some of the train cars. There were explosions and the cars started to get lifted up in the air.
"Did we just get robbed?" Ruby asked.
Jessie turned and saw the aircraft leaving with some of the train cars. "Yes, yes we did. There isn't a lot we can do about that now. We need to keep on holding off the Grimm until everyone gets here." Jessie went back to shooting. With the train now in two sections the control car at the rear couldn't control the turrets that were at the front of the train. By this point most of the people on the front had made their way to the rear engine. The last few had made it to the from the front part of the train and onto the rear part.
"Freight Train 1729, this is Beacon Academy instructor Goodwich. We are heading towards your location, give us a sitrep.". Ruby lifted her head up and looked around, she couldn't see them but she could hear the chief giving an update to them.
"All hands, we have support inbound. Prepare to stop turrets and move in for ground combat. Support by fire will be done my huntsman.". Flares shot up from the forest, as soon as they went up flares were shot up from the train. Once the flares went up the turrets stopped. Looking out Ruby could hear the sound of the huntsman fighting off the Grimm. The train security headed out as well and started to take out the Grimm that were near the train.
The fight was now turning against the Grimm, most of them were gone and only a few of the large ones remained. Looking through her scope Ruby saw Carl fighting off a couple of smaller Grimm, the other spotter was with him as well. Once they killed of the last Beowolf in their area the headed back to the train. Looking farther back she could see something moving; before she could get a shot off a king taijitu split the two of them up, knocking the other spotter towards the train while Carl was knocked away. Ruby looked around and couldn't see anyone else near Carl. The king taijitu turned to Carl and started to slither towards him.
"Jessie, Carl is in trouble, I'm going after him.". Jessie turned to Ruby to see her shoot off towards Carl in a red haze. Jessie looked over at where Ruby went to and saw her spotter near the train while Carl was farther back with the king tajitu moving towards him. Blinking she saw Ruby in front of Carl, the only thing between the Grimm and him.
Facing the king tajitu she switched the ammo in her rifle to gravity rounds and fired at the middle of the Grimm. The rounds hit the Grimm and started to slow its movement but only for a minute. As Ruby ran towards the Grimm she opened up her rifle to reveal that it was also a scythe. Firing a round into the ground the energy from the round as well as being a gravity round launched her towards the Grimm. Turing the scythe the blade got under the head of the Grimm, as soon as it did Ruby fired another round, the blade of the scythe cutting through the Grimm.
Once the king tajitu was dead Ruby ran over to Carl. He was awake but dazed, not sure of what had actually happened. Ruby took his hand and ran towards the train. Reaching the train a couple members of the train's security met up with them, one of them taking Carl inside the train. Looking at her radar there were no more red dots, only blue ones showing the huntsman and other fighters.
"All hands. We don't have any contacts. Team leaders start setting up a perimeter and we will be assessing if we can recover the train.". As soon as the chief finished members of the train security started setting up a perimeter around the rear of the train. The turrets readjusted, pointing out in all directions.
"You there. What in the world were you thinking?". A tall women with blond hair and glasses came up and stared downed Ruby. All Ruby could do was lift her head up and look at the woman who she had never met yet intensely disliked her. "It is one thing to run out in front of people who are shooting but to shoot back in our direction is beyond reckless.".
"I was trying to save Carl." Ruby said.
"Well in the progress of saving him you could have taken one of my students out. I don't know how long you have been doing this job but I'll be reporting your actions to your superiors.". The woman started to walk away.
"I've been doing it for… an hour? However long this horde has been here?". The woman stopped and turned back to Ruby who had just taken off her helmet.
The woman walked back to Ruby. "How old are you?"
The man that had talked to Ruby earlier on the train came up to the two of them. "Any mistakes she made are on me. We needed everyone able to fight fighting. She said she can shoot so I had her help. We can worry about that later, right now the train needs to be reconnected as well as fixing the rails that were blown up. If we can't get the rails fixed then we need to head back to the previous town."
"I can fix the rails while you reconnect the train cars."
"Thanks, by the way I'm Daryl." He said putting his hand out.
"Glynda Goodwitch." She put her hand out and shook his. "I'll have some of my students come with me to fix the rails. This is Peter Port, he is one of the other instructors, he can work with you on having the other students provide security.". With that she headed off to the front of the train with a couple of students.
Peter and Daryl greeted each other but they stopped when Glynda got their attention. Using hand signals some of the train security came up to the car that they pointed at. Glynda used her semblance to telekinetically pull the side doors off of the car. Flooding the inside of the car with light they found a couple dozen people inside the car. They were all chained to the floor of the car.
Daryl had everyone lower their weapons. "So we found the bait. I'll take care of this, go and fix the rails.". Glynda went to the damaged rail area. Another team searched the front train section and found other people who had been kidnapped but unlike the ones in the back section they were unconscious. All the people who were kidnapped were moved to the crew cars and kept there as it was still unknown if they all were victims.
Once the rails were fixed the train cars were reconnected. The fix wasn't perfect but it was enough to get the train into the city. A couple of airships from the capitol had arrived and provided air support. It was after midnight when the train got into the city. Arriving at the trainyard members of the Vale police and Beacon academy were waiting for them.
The police took the people who had been kidnapped into custody as well as searching the train and talking to the crew. The instructors as well as the students were questioned by the police. Questioning went rather fast as everyone was spent from fighting off the Grimm. Once the questioning was done the police released everyone.
"Hey Ruby." Daryl was calling her over where he was talking to a few people from the academy. Going over to him there were a couple of the instructors that were out in the field as one that she didn't recognize. "This is Ruby, she really helped us out with dealing with the horde."
"I don't know if I would go that far." Glynda said.
"Oh you should have seen it" Peter interjected. "There two of them were, just finishing off a ursa major when unknown to anyone a king tajitu came slithering through and hit the both of them. One was knocked towards the train but the other was flung into the forest. Alone and injured the man would have been a goner but then this girl, a red ball of fury immediately dove in between the two. Using her weapon she slowed it by shooting gravity rounds into it. Then running to the Grimm she fired a round increasing her speed and opening her weapon to show that she was no girl but the reaper in disguise. Her weapon formed into a scythe and she took the head of the Grimm. I only wish you could have seen her amazing feat."
"Really" The man said looking at Ruby. "You took out a king tajitu by yourself. How old are you?"
"I'm sixteen" Ruby said.
"I take it you are training to be a huntsman?"
"Yes, I just finished my first year at Signal academy."
The man looked around to see that most of the people had already left. "Do you need a ride to where you are staying?"
Ruby shrugged. "I was going to surprise my sister and call her when the train was close to the city but by now she is either asleep, at a club, or getting into a fight. Actually knowing her she got into a fight at a club and is going to bed."
"So in other words you don't have a place to stay for the night. Luckily for you I have plenty of rooms. I am Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon academy. If you want I can let you spend the night at the school and you can contact your sister tomorrow, if you would like?"
Ruby became wide-eyed. "You're the headmaster of Beacon academy? "
"Indeed I am. I would like to talk to you some more tomorrow if that is all right?"
"Sure, that sounds great" Ruby said smiling.
"Good" Ozpin said turning to the airstrip. "In that case let's get to the airship and head back to the school. I'm guess all of you are rather tired."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The next morning Ruby woke up in one of the transient dorm rooms. Getting cleaned up she left and headed to the school cafeteria where she sat down to lunch as it was already a little past noon. When she was done with lunch she headed over to the academy's main building which was a massive tower. She could see the towner when flying in but being dark with no moonlight it was hard to make out. Walking up to it she could see how majestic yet imposing it was.
Going inside she went to the lobby and let one of the receptionist know who she was and that she was there to see the headmaster. The receptionist had her wait for a few minutes before she called her over and directed her to one of the elevators. Going inside the doors closed and only the over lights showed her anything. Looing at the wall she thought it was a waste to have an elevator in a tower that didn't let you see the outside.
When the elevator stopped the doors opened and she walked into a massive room. The room was circular with windows being the only walls letting anyone see the entire sky. Opposite of the elevator doors was a desk and behind it Ozpin was sitting.
"Good afternoon, I take it you were able to get some rest and something to eat?"
"Yeah" Ruby said walking towards his desk while looking out the window. Ozpin got up and walked around his desk and pulled out a chair for Ruby. Sitting down she still looked out the windows. "This is an amazing view."
Ozpin looked out at the same window that Ruby was looking through. "Indeed it is. So I talked to the train crew, my instructors as well as getting ahold of the headmaster of Signal academy. After talking to them, how would you like to attend Beacon academy in the fall?"
Ruby turned to Ozpin who was still looking out the window. "Are you serious?"
Ozpin turned to her. "Quite. Despite your age you were able to assist the train crew in fighting of a horde. That alone is a difficult task but then you went and killed a king tajitu by yourself. You are obviously someone who is quite capable at fighting. Not only that you were able to keep yourself calm and collected during the fight. This is something that Daryl mentioned to me, that despite facing a horde you didn't panic. There are plenty of huntsman in training that will panic when facing Grimm. You probably saw that with some of your classmates at Signal. When the Grimm sense that someone is afraid they will single them out. That is what happened last night, whoever robbed the train used people as bait to attract them to the train. Last night you were able to fight against a far larger force and able to stay calm while doing it, in the end you are more than qualified to start attending Beacon academy."
Ruby just looked at him for a minute taking in what he had just said. "But I'm not eighteen, isn't that a requirement?"
Ozpin smiled. "Yes but exceptions can be made if the headmaster allows it."
Ruby started to look around the room. "So then, what else do I need to do? I mean is just being able to fight all I need to be able to do to attend?"
"Fight prowess is important but remember you will have regular classes as well which might be more difficult for you. There are three months before the new school year starts, it will give you time to start studding in the areas that you might have difficulty in. I'm only offering a spot for you, taking it is your choice."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Glynda walked out of the elevator and went over to Ozpin who was looking out the window. Looking down she could see Ruby skipping away from the building. "So, she accepted you offer. She has the raw talent but another year at Signal would be best."
Ozpin kept on looking out the window. "Normally I would agree with you but I don't know if we can wait a year. We don't know where two of the maidens are, one is safe in Atlas and the fourth is below us with only half of her powers. The attack on the train took six train cars that were just containing Dust and this is not the first time there has been a large heist like this."
"Things are not perfect but is this really the first time something like this has happened?"
"No. Let me ask you something, what are the color of Ruby's eyes?"
Glynda thought for a moment. "I don't recall."
"Silver. Not only are they silver but her last name is Rose, she is the daughter of Summer Rose. Even if she wasn't on the train last night I would have offered her to come to start at the beginning of the school year. If I'm wrong then she will become a huntsman sooner than normal, if I'm right then she will be a key piece in the fight that we will be facing."
Glynda sighed. "I hope you are wrong".
"So do I."