Evening, team RWBY's dorm

Roy decided to go alone, letting his team debrief everything about aura, dust and those fancy shields while he discussed whatever needed to be discussed with Ruby's team. Oliver complained, but agreed that some things needed to be investigated and fast. Roy was in his army uniform, his hair loose underneath his purple beret. He could easily be mistaken for a girl at that point. He knocked twice on the door and waited. Shortly after, a silver-eyed girl in her pajamas opened the door. Roy looked surprised at first, but quickly disregarded that detail. She looked behind him, and seemed intrigued.

"You, uuhh, you didn't bring the others?"

"No. I figured their presence wasn't mandatory. Besides we have a lot to talk about between us, so I told them to start without me. May I come in?"

"Oh, uh, sure, yeah."

When Roy walked in, he suddenly felt oppressed by team RWBY's inquisitive looks. He was also impressed by the look and feel of the room. To put it simply, it was an organized mess. Especially the bunk beds. Ruby then cleared her throat, causing Roy to look at each member of team RWBY, who looked like they had a lot on their mind.

"Is... uhhh something wrong?"

"No... I mean, yes, I mean, we're not sure…"

Ruby seemed embarrassed, Blake looked cautious, Yang looked curious and Weiss, well… Roy wasn't sure if Weiss was annoyed or angry. Maybe both. Roy then remembered that they met Ozpin at noon and sighed. The lieutenant took a chair and looked at the girls.

"Alright. I think I know where this is going. Has to do with what Ozpin told you, doesn't it?"

"Well, uuuhh, yeah…"

Ruby scratched the back of her head. Before she could continue, Weiss took over.

"You're not from Atlas, are you?"

"Eh, I'll be honest, I don't even know what Atlas is."

"Ugh, unbelievable, and Ozpin expects everyone to believe his little forgery?"

"But you ARE in the military." commented Blake.

"Yes, I am. 2nd Lieutenant Roy Anderson, Army Rangers."

"Rangers? What's that? I never heard of it." asked Yang.

"Is it some kind of super-secret agent thing?"

Roy chuckled and smiled. Yeah, she definitely had a cute side.

"No, Ruby, it's not a super-secret agent thing."

No, that'd be the Shadow Division. If it exists. Maybe. Before he could wander in his thoughts, Roy took his beret and looked at the insignia.

"Rangers are a part of the Federal Army. Well, on paper at least. We're dedicated to the protection of all mankind. While we are tied to the chain of command, we have the freedom to act independently if we wish to. We're the guardians of peace, the ones you send when there's an evil dictatorship or terrorist group to take down."

"Huh, that sounds a lot like Huntsmen. Except the army part. Oh, if you're in the army, how comes you and Stella have long hair?"

Roy could almost swear he saw Yang grin before she played with her hair, hiding her face.

"We're allowed to do whatever we want with our hair as long as it fits in our helmets without hindering our capability to fight. For facial hair though, that's another story."

After a short moment of silence, Weiss resumed the conversation.

"You said you didn't know of Atlas. Do you know of any kingdoms?"

"Except for Vale, no, not really. I guess Atlas is one, but that's about it."

"And given your equipment, I doubt that you belong to Vale's military."

Ruby then looked saddened, or concerned, perhaps.

"So, you're...you're really not from around here, are you?"

Roy stopped smiling and looked at the floor.

"No. No, we're not. I'm not going to lie, we're not even from Remnant."

Weiss's voice was filled with uncertainty.

"So, you're... an alien? You certainly look human to me..."

"Mmph, funny you should say that. As far as I'm concerned, I'm as human as I can be. You on the other hand, I'm not so sure."

"What? What do you mean?"

Weiss didn't know if she should be offended or worried, her facial expression a messy mix of fear and anger looks.

"Well, we know we come from Old Earth. We've got the records, we've got the cultural background. You? We don't have anything on you. Maybe you're human. Maybe you're not. All I know is that the Federation and its neighbors emerged from humanity's only recorded attempt at interstellar colonization."

"Old earth? Is that a metaphor?"

"No, Old Earth as in, Earth. Terra. Big Old Blue, Solar system. Ring any bells?"

The room fell silent for a moment, the four girls eyeing each other out like they just got told something utterly incomprehensible until Ruby spoke again.

"Soooo, how did you end up here? I mean, before the Emerald Forest."

"Well, that's quite a long story. I'll try to keep it simple."

Roy then told them all about the Kashgar, the ambush, the artifact… It would all be a fairy tale to them, to hell with all the classified bullshit. Once he was finished, Roy couldn't decide if they looked at him with dread or with pity. Perhaps both. The fact that, out of the 526 souls on-board the Kashgar, only five reached safety, and only forty or so could still be alive, certainly did a number of the team's morale. Yang was the first to talk again.

"Well, I'm… sure more of your friends made it, right?"

"Mmmh, we'll see. They hunkered down in the most heavily armored part of the ship, after all. Until we're ready to go out there and look for clues, there's nothing we can do about it."

"How can you be so calm?" asked Blake, her voice betraying her look of empathy. She didn't ask that for him, she asked for herself. Perhaps a story for another time.

"This isn't the first time I lose people I care about. And this time, there wasn't much I could do to change the outcome. Now, all I can do is make sure my team stays safe and move on."

"That's very honorable of you but, are you sure you're okay?" Weiss didn't seem angry anymore, but genuinely worried.

"Listen, I'm a soldier. More than that, I'm an officer. I may be a few years younger than I should be, but I earned those medals. I earned those stripes. I'm not allowed to break down when my team needs me."

"But you're at Beacon now. You're safe. It's okay to not be okay." Ruby seemed genuinely concerned as well. After all, she did see his team getting slaughtered first-hand. She didn't know them, but she knew Roy did.

Roy then looked at his Scroll. It was late, nearly midnight. "Yeah, well, let's talk about that another time. Now, if that's all you needed, I think it's getting late."

"Wait! We also need to tell you. Since Ozpin wants to make sure that your origins stay hidden, he wants us to give you a few lessons on Remnant. That way you won't blow your cover at the first discussion you get involved in. We're the only ones aware of your true origins in addition to Ozpin, Ms. Goodwitch and Prof. Port."

"Okay. Fair enough. He wants to avoid mass panic, I can work with that."

Ruby got up and opened the door.

"Well, if… there's anything you need, you know where to find us, eheh."

She was definitely uncomfortable, laughing nervously to try and make things easier.

"I know, Ruby, I'll call you if I ever need something."

Saturday morning, Beacon Academy's Bullhead hangar

Team ROSE was standing in front of the hangar Ozpin indicated, all of them in their military uniform. After a little while, Spencer, or Hot Dog, Roy didn't really know how to call him anymore, joined them. He was wearing Vale's pilot vest on his navy jumpsuit and was smoking a cigar.

"So, how's Ozpin treating you?"

"Meh. Bullhead flight crash course and some simple delivery jobs. I have to say, I've never seen such a sluggish craft being mass produced before."

"What kind of fuel does it use?"

"Not ours, unfortunately. Our tech's way too advanced for these people. Who the hell uses firearms nowadays?"

"They do have some nasty surprises. Don't let your guard down."

"Whatever kid. Even if we fix our bird, I don't know how to refuel it. They don't even have nuclear scientists."

"Well, they have electricity. We would at least have access to a decent-ranged radio and a way to recharge our power cells."

Hot Dog only grunted in agreement. After four days in Vale, they were all finally going to retrieve the rest of their equipment and most importantly, their Raven assault craft. After another fifteen minutes of talk about their days at Beacon, a couple of Bullheads appeared in sight, with their prize towed between them. The dropship was in one piece, but the landing gear and engine nacelles were damaged. Roy nodded towards the craft.

"Eizan, think you can fix this?"

"Mmmhh... Just make sure I get all the parts I need and we should be good in a few weeks, a couple of months at worse."

As the Bullheads landed their precious cargo in front of the hangar, Hot Dog turned to look at Roy's team and laughed.

"Hahaha, it's gonna take more than a small crash to keep my girl down!"

"Alright, let's grab all our gear, we'll store what we can in our lockers, and put the rest in our dorm. We'll get the rest from the cops this evening. Funeral's tomorrow at 1400."

Now they had a proper armory, and enough ammo to last for a lengthy expedition. They also recovered their survival kit, which included the distress beacon, some portable radios and a solar generator, among other things. Eizan and Hot Dog inspected their aircraft, listing every component that would need a replacement. The list was long, and most components would have to be handcrafted, but the most complex systems were unharmed. The ship's miniature fusion drives were still operational, as well as its armament. Down to three pair of hands, transferring and organizing their stockpile of weapons and equipment took nearly four hours. In the meantime, Eizan and Hot Dog repaired their craft's radio transmitter using Bullhead spare parts and some ingenuity. For the rest, Bullhead parts wouldn't do the job, but Roy knew exactly who to speak to. A certain red Grimm Reaper. Roy chuckled by just remembering Oliver giving her that nickname. In the past three days, they spent nearly every lunch break with team RWBY and JNPR. By now all four of them had their aura unlocked, but not their Semblance. Roy took his Scroll, searched for Ruby's number and stopped before pressing the call button. They'd spend four hours walking between the Bullhead maintenance park, the locker room and their dorm. They were all hungry and tired. Besides, it could wait. Roy put away his Scroll and took out his radio.

"All call signs, this is Rose Actual, radio check, over."

"Rose Three, copy, over."

"Rose… ah fuck those call signs, over."

"Eheh, yeah, we copy, over."

Roy sighed. Oliver wasn't gonna follow regulations. Again. And Hot Dog wasn't taking him seriously. Again. Luckily, he still had Stella and Eizan remaining somewhat professional.

"Alright guys, I get it. How about lunch down in the city? Hot Dog, up for treating your comrades to a meal? Over."

"Hey, hey, hold up, I haven't been paid yet!"

"Well that sucks."

"Alright, back to the mess hall everyone, over."

"Copy, over."

"Got it."

"On our way."

Afternoon, Beacon Dorms rooftop

"So, think you can make the shot?"

"Tsk, you're the only one of us who can't."

"Aw, come on El-Tee, that's just mean."

"Then stop bothering me and let me focus."

"Alright, suit yourself. Range: 425m, wind: 4kph south-west."

Roy took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. 425m away, in the garden outside of the dining hall, a row of empty soda cans grew one can shorter. Both men were lying on the rooftop of the dorm block, with Stella, Hot Dog and Eizan leaning against the wall behind them. Oliver was holding a pair of spotting binoculars while Roy held his rifle, its handguard resting on a pile of books and its barrel slightly distorted by the heat haze.

"Volltreffer. That's the second round you lose, you sure you want to keep playing?"

"You just got lucky, that's all. I'm not gonna back off, I ain't bitch-made."

Stella snickered and smiled. "Sure. I think Ms. Xiao Long would beg to differ." Oliver shivered at the thought, while the others laughed. Yesterday, she gave him a ride with her motorbike. Wouldn't be anything serious, really, just a stroll in the city on a Friday evening. Except that apparently, having a driver's license in Vale doesn't mean driving responsibly. Roy remembered Oliver's terrified Never again look when he got back to the dorm, and the rest of the team just spent the rest of the evening mocking him and talking about team RWBY and JNPR. Their laughing session was interrupted when a silver-eyed girl opened the rooftop's door. Roy and Oliver stood up, and everyone nodded at Ruby to greet her.

"Uuuhhh, hi, whatcha doing?"

"Just some target practice. Friendly competition. Wanna join in?"

Ruby suddenly became very excited, waving her arms and hoping like a rabbit.

"Oh yes! Yes! Yes! Can I really use your gun? I never touched a military-grade weapon before, this is awesome! What kind of gun is it?"

As if he didn't want to be a part of this mess, Hot Dog shook his head, tapped on Eizan's shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

"Okay guys, have fun. Eizan and I are going back to the Raven."

Oliver looked at Ruby, then at Roy, and finally at Stella, who nodded towards the door.

"Yeah… no way I'm gonna win against TWO sharpshooters, I'm out."

"Same here, I might be better than Oliver, but both of you… It's not gonna happen."

"Pfff, you're no fun... Alright guys, see ya."

And with that, Roy and Ruby were alone on the rooftop, with a loaded LENR rifle and a pair of spotting binoculars. Ruby's eyes were glimmering at the sight of the weapon, and Roy remembered her question.

"Ah, yeah. This is a "Gladius" LENR rifle, standard issue service rifle of the Federation."

"What's Lenir? The name of the guy who invented it?"

"Oh, no, LENR is an acronym. Stands for Low Energy Nuclear Reaction."

"Uuuuuhhhh so it's like, an atomic gun?"

Roy chuckled at the thought. Ruby's eyes were glued to the rifle he was holding. Yeah, she's a nerd. A cute one, but still a nerd. And she knows what Nuclear means, this ought to be interesting.

"No, not exactly. It's essentially a plasma railgun."

"A what?"

Roy flipped the rifle and pressed a button. The cheek pad moved and revealed a compartment in the gun's stock. A small cylinder extended outward.

"See this? That's the hydrogen core. One of these is good for about eight thousand shots."

"Wooaw, so you pretty much never run out."

"Not that easy." Roy then closed the compartment and flipped the rifle again. This time he took out a large block resting in front of the trigger guard and showed it to Ruby. "The power cell only lasts for thirty-six shots. We do have bigger ones, but that model's a universal standard. The same we use in some suits and various equipment."

"Soooo… how does it work? What kind of dust uses electricity?"

"We don't use dust. It's… complicated. Maybe I'll show you later. Short answer is, we use the hydrogen core to create a tiny ball of plasma, and then we discharge some capacitors in two parallel rails to accelerate it to nearly 45km/s."

"Coooool. Can I try it?"

"Not so fast, Reaper. A single shot from this baby can blow off a limb. If you want to pl… to use it, then you're gonna have to show me how good of a shot you are."

Ruby then instantly deployed Crescent Rose in its rifle configuration. Roy looked at Ruby and her weapon and couldn't help but whistle.

"Damn, that's a big fucking gun. How can you even use this thing?"

"Oh, that's easy. It's lighter than it looks, and I use the recoil to move around. What am I shooting at?"

"But… Okay. Sure. See that line of soda cans down there, next to the dining hall?"

Ruby took aim while Roy grabbed the binoculars. Ruby switched from super-excited to super-focused so quickly it felt unnatural. It seems that Huntsmen training was no joke, after all.

"Yup."

"Okay, I want you to…"

Roy never finished his sentence, as Ruby fired her Crescent Rose. The sudden change of pressure due to the high caliber weapon left Roy's ears ringing for a little moment, but Roy didn't look away from the row of soda cans. Ruby's bullet hit the can in a heartbeat, sending fragments flying into the dirt.

"Alright, that's… good enough. Here, now try this. Mind if I check out your Crescent Rose?"

"Oh, umh...Yeah, okay. I've never actually… let anyone have it before."

"Well, I'm honored, Lady Rose." said Roy, bowing with a grin on his face. Ruby blushed slightly but quickly focused on her new toy. "Now, be careful. Because the round's so fast, there's pretty much no bullet drop to compensate."

Ruby nodded before inspecting the new rifle in her hands. It was steel black, with an integrated scope in the sleek carrying handle. It was a fairly normal adjustable 1-4x scope. The most striking feature was the lack of moving parts. Ruby spun the rifle in all directions, with Roy commenting whenever her gaze stopped at a particular component. In comparison, Crescent Rose seemed... over-engineered. The weapon was bulky, but surprisingly light, given its size. Most of it was made of aluminium, with some components made of steel or titanium. It didn't seem extremely efficient, since it was a bolt action, but each component was carefully designed to fulfill its purpose. Roy knew it was also a scythe, but he didn't try to find out how that worked. The scope was tiny for a sniper rifle, its magnification was stuck at x4. That meant Ruby was a really good shot, maybe even better than him. His inspection also revealed that the weapon shouldn't be as effective as it was. Perhaps it only truly shines as an aura-infused weapon. Roy looked up at the sniper-scythe's owner. She was waiting for something. Right, ammo. Roy gave her the power cell he removed earlier and stepped back. With a determined look, she then aimed the weapon towards her target and flicked the safety off. Ruby's professionalism with a weapon felt unnatural to Roy. She was only fifteen, but was already holding the weapon better than Oliver, and the look in her eyes reminded him of some of the best sharpshooters of his class. Her haircut seemed carefully designed to allow her to use a scope, her black hair locks showing tints of red near the tips. Before Roy could daze off any further, Ruby fired. The bluish flash briefly illuminated her face and brought Roy back to reality. Ruby then returned to her usual joyful state.

"Woooaaa, this feels so weeeiiirrdd. There's almost no recoil, and it hits instantly! And the sound! You don't need earplugs or aura, it's incredible!"

"Pretty nice, huh?"

"Pretty nice? That's the coolest thing ever! You have to show me how it works!"

"Uuuuhh…"

"Pretty pleeaase?"

Roy sighed, then remembered that he needed something from her.

"Fine. But I want something in exchange."

"Like what?"

"I need a favor from you. You designed and built Crescent Rose, haven't you?"

"Oh, uh, yup, that was all me! Hehe."

"Good. I need some… custom-built components."

"Ooh, what for?"

"Our aircraft. We can't fix it without those parts. It's for the landing gear and the engines, mostly."

"So… you're letting me see your airship? Is that really okay? It seemed pretty important."

"Well, it's not going to help us if it's not operational. Consider yourself lucky. You'll have access to some top-of-the line, next-generation military hardware. Just listen to Eizan and Hot… and Spencer, do as they tell you and everything will be fine. Besides, you let me have Crescent Rose for a moment, thought I should let you have something special as well."

That, or maybe he was desperate enough to fix his dropship. He could've called Ozpin, but something's off with the man. No way he'd let the authorities have their hands on that tech, either. Having a fifteen-year-old mechanical genius working on a space-faring aircraft wasn't exactly reassuring, but that was the solution he could trust the most. Especially with repairs that don't require any high-tech components. Yeah. Nothing to do with that adorable smile and those beautiful silver eyes. No, not at all.