Fort Beacon, relocated at border country codenamed Viktor Speeder
09:56 hours
Rose, now code named Ruby, cautiously walks to the doorway of the barracks and peers in. It looks empty except for four bunks. She looks at her papers, which she got from her CO eight hours ago and have held onto since, to make sure that she's in the right room.
She turns around and watches Fort Beacon slowly reconstruct itself at its new location. Transport trucks and jeeps haul in several tons of supplies and equipment. Paladins and Vale-built M1 Abrams main battle tanks, take the newly paved roads deeper inside the base. Bullheads fly overhead, some bringing in paratrooper units, others dangling large cargo containers below them. There are whole companies walking passed the barracks, but all in groups, no single soldiers like her.
She turns back around and walks in. It looks like someone started bringing in the bunks and footlockers, got bored, and moved on to the next building. What's strange are the ridiculously large lockers at the end of the barracks; there are four on the far wall that are shaped like large metal coffins. Each has a colored square; red, white, black, and yellow; on the center. There are also two long tables stacked with weapon crates and cases, all of them empty. Ruby assumes that's what General Ozpin meant by "whatever gear you choose." She and her squad will probably pick up their weapons later in the day.
"If they get here," she thinks to herself.
Ruby decides to go ahead and settle in. She unslings her heavy backpack from her shoulder, which carries everything she'd typically carry in her deployment as instructed by her papers, and her modified M200 sniper rifle, Crescent Rose. As she walks into the barracks and the backpack sways around her arm, it strikes a small, black gun case with a white snowflake sketched on the side stacked on top of a larger crate with a similar snowflake on the side that she didn't see by the door, and it falls to the floor with a thud. Ruby stares at it for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Schnee shrieks behind Ruby. Ruby yelps and whips around in surprise, her backpack half dragging her to the ground. A woman wearing an infantry officer's uniform with white bangs, hair done in a ball in the back, and a beret on her head. She looks angrily at Ruby, hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry!" Ruby squeaks, dropping her back and reaching for the fallen case.
"Atten-SHUN!" Schnee orders. Ruby gulps and stands at attention. "Don't you recognize an officer when you see one?" Schnee scoffs, pointing at her bars.
"Uh, permission to speak, Sir?" Ruby asks. Schnee's eyes darken.
"It's Ma'am!" she declares, fists clenched.
"Ma'am! Ma'am," Ruby quickly says. "I'm sorry but, who are you exactly? You're not wearing a name tape."
"Didn't you read the papers, Private?" Schnee asks, waving her own copy of instructions. "We're supposed to remove them, which you did, so why ask?" Without waiting for a response, she continues. "I am special operations member code named Weiss of the Hunter Program. Who the hell are you?"
"Ro-R-Ruby, S-Ma'am," Ruby stutters. "This is the Hunter Program, right?"
"I hope not," Xiao says from the doorway. Ruby looks over Weiss' shoulder and sees a large, fit woman in heavy combat gear, carrying a backpack identical to her own, and has long, golden hair flowing down to her shoulders. Her beaming lilac eyes peek under her LWH helmet.
"Note the bars, Sergeant," Weiss says to her. Xiao takes her papers out of her backpack, then tosses the pack onto the nearest bed.
"Don't the papers say to disregard the current ranks of other Hunter Program members?" she says, pointing at the papers. Weiss hastily looks through her own papers, and her shoulders sag.
"Oh, I don't have time for this nonsense," she mumbles. She picks up the fallen box and turns to Ruby, who tenses up again. "Do you have any idea what this is?" Weiss asks the red haired girl.
"Well, it's in a box so, no not really," she says. Schnee flips the box open, and pulls out a large pistol.
It largely resembles a chrome desert eagle, but with an elongated barrel and a revolver cylinder located just above the trigger. There are colored stripes located around the cylinder, the colors Ruby can see being red, blue, white, and yellow.
"This is a MADR Myrtenaster Combat Pistol, a prototype pistol built by Schnee Armaments. There are only three in existence, and I am one of the few field testers." Weiss clicks the hammer and extra slot forward, and the whole barrel rotates down on a top-break action. Ruby can now see that the colored stripes are actually small vials of different colored dust. There are the additional colors of green, and black.
"It is the only small arms weapon in the world capable of Automatic Dust Adjustment Modifier technology. This gun can fire nine rounds with explosive, tracer, armor piercing, non-lethal, incendiary, and electric capabilities. The entire weapon costs eleven thousand Lien, and you're damn lucky you didn't damage it."
"I'm sure it was an accident," Xiao says. You shouldn't have put your gear that close to the entrance, anyway."
"I didn't! My former troops did!" Weiss protests. Xiao rolls her eyes, which land on Ruby. She quickly smiles. "Hi, what's your callsign?" she asks Ruby.
"Uh, Ruby," Ruby replies.
"Yang," Xiao replies, extending her hand. Ruby shakes it with a limp hand.
"Hey, I'm not done!" Weiss says. "I need to inspect your papers myself, Ruby, or whatever you call yourself."
"Uh, why?" Ruby asks.
"Because there's no way a clumsy inexperienced grunt like yourself could get into a special forces unit," Weiss says. "Spec ops isn't boot camp, Private. It's for experienced veterans who will be sent to the worst places of a war, and considering you can't even handle your pack with care, I wouldn't even trust you with a rifle."
"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Ruby says, gaining confidence from the friendliness of Yang. "And why shouldn't I check your papers?"
"How dare you!" Weiss shouts. "I am a Captain of the Vale Armed Forces. I commanded an infantry company in Counter Wind. I rose through the ranks and fight proudly for my country! What did you do, convince a rear-echelon officer that you could-"
"Officer on deck!" Bell shouts behind the three girls, who whip around to see Generals Ozpin and Goodwitch standing in the doorway. Immediately, the four soldiers scramble to the closest beds and stand at attention.
"How long was she standing there?" Yang murmurs to Ruby, eyeing the girl across from her. Her armor is a combination of black and woodland camouflage, has a black and white shemagh around her neck and an Airborne Division baseball cap on her ragged jet black hair.
"At ease," Ozpin says. The soldiers comply. Ozpin takes a step forward and pushes his glasses up.
"I'll keep to the point," he says. "You are here today because you have been selected to take part in a highly unorthodox special forces unit. Yes, you will be, after a month of specialized training at this base, shipped out to the front lines, fighting in some of the most horrid and lethal conditions known to exist on our Remnant. You will be armed with advanced gear not available to any other unit in the VAF, and you will go down in history as some of the most valuable assets of this war."
"But most of all, you will do all of these things as a team. You will become well acquainted with the three other Hunters in this room for the duration of this war and beyond. You will eat, sleep, work, and fight together. You will never leave your squadmates' side. Your team will never be divided."
"That is what you will live by as long as you are a Hunter. Be warned, you are allowed to leave the Hunter Program at any point and return to your former unit, but your team will automatically be disbanded. A Hunter is not replaceable. So if any of you are having doubts about the competence of you or the other members of your team, leave this barracks right now." The girls look between each other, especially Ruby and Weiss.
Weiss is at a crossroad; she doesn't trust the small sniper, but at the same time she doesn't want to jeopardize her status as a special forces operator.
"Be a woman of the people."
Well, she must've done something right to get in here, Weiss decides. She furrows her brow and slowly nods to Ruby, signaling a "stalemate" of sorts. Ruby thinks it over, and nods back.
"Very good," Ozpin says. "One final note about the Hunter Program; all are equal. You will retain the rank you held before joining the Hunter Program, but only on paper. Whether you were an officer or a grunt before, you are a Hunter now, and will treat each other as such. The only exception to this is the team leader, who will command the squad during combat and hold overall responsibility for the squad. But off the battlefield, there is no hierarchy or chain of command. And if one of you dies, for whatever reason, your team will automatically be disbanded. Understand, Hunters?"
"Sir, yes Sir!" the four girls reply in unison.
"Atten-SHUN!" Ozpin orders. The squad straightens up.
"Ruby, sniper. Weiss, assault. Blake, stealth. Yang demolition. You are RWBY Squad. The Vale Armed Forces salutes you." Ozpin salutes them, which the Hunters return. Glynda steps forward.
"Ruby," she says. "You are designated team leader. You and your squad report to the armory to select your weapons. Dismissed." The generals leave the barracks. Weiss and Ruby are staring wide-eyed at each other, Yang is holding in a laugh and just smiles, and Blake looks between the three girls, wondering what she missed.