AN: Hi there unfoutnetly this is a little short cause I'm not quite confident in a li ttle skirmish I wrote right after. The song lyrics are supposed to be centered but due to formatting issues, I can't seem to do it. Anyways, Krauss pays respects to his squad. I am aware that the Military generaly buried it's dead but the theatrics were too good to pass up. Sit back and try to comprehend the drivel that is chapter 5 and tell me what I screwed up. EDIT ok I've fixed my poor choice at dialogue and updated the fight. Expect Krauss's fights to be boing, there pratical, and thought out, only engaging in Melee as a last resort, unlike Remnant were Melee is the primary form of combat.
The following day and night passed before Krauss woke. After changing into a fresh uniform he went to see Ozpin again. After being bounced through the head nurse and Glynda, he arrived in Ozpin's office. He walked up to the cogdesk (its a desk and there's cogs everywhere.)and saluted. "Sir you requested my presence." Ozpin sighed. "Please I am not your commanding officer you have no need to salute, please have a seat." Dropping the salute, Krauss sat down. "What is it that you require sir?" "Since you are new in this world I would like to appoint someone as a guide for you would act as a shadow to them. For the day you are cleared that is." Krauss thought about it for a second. "Who would you pick for these duties?" " Most likely team RWBY." Krauss looked at Ozpin directly in the eye."What's other purpose do you have?" Ozpin blinked." You're more perceptive than you look. I was hoping you could help them cope with your arrival, opening a HUMVEE ,was it, to find four dead men is a bit past what anyone here is trained for." Krauss leaned forwards in his chair." So I'm supposed to act like a shrink for them." "Eh yes I hope you understand." "I'll do it, they're still kids, they should not have to deal with that." Krauss got up to leave and walked to the door. He paused as if remembering something. "Sir I would like to ask you if you could make a set of flags, as I understand it Hammer 2-3 has yet to be buried." Ozpin looked up " I presume this is some tradition with service members?" "Yes usually there's a three volley salute too, but I'm the only one left." "I can get those flags made, what would they look like?" Krauss reached to one of the patches on his shoulder and ripped the Velcro off. On it lied the the greyscaled colors of the United States. "Fifty white stars on a field of blue, thirteen stripes, seven red, six white. One for each casket." " Ozpin looked at patch and nodded."I'll see it done. Your men will see their final respects." Krauss let out a breath neither noticed he was holding."Thank you so much. I'll take my leave now I wasn't really cleared yet." Ozpin simply nodded.
The funeral Krauss had arranged for the members of his squad was held the next day at sunset. At the edge of the cliff overlooking the Emerald forest, four morgue boxes were placed on pyres with the colors draped over them. Only person present besides Krauss was Ozpin. Krauss had for some reason had his dress uniform in that duffle of his, and was currently wearing it. Ozpin had donated four swords similar in style to the one Krauss currently wore.(Yes NCOs and some officers still have swords, but they're just part of the dress I believe NCOs can wear there's about base as part of their duty uniform.) Ozpin stood next to him in his old uniform, A white high collared ensemble with crimson epaulets and a small array of medals on his chest. A torch blazed in his left hand while his cane was griped the other. They simply stood there for what seemed the longest time before Krauss started to sing.
"Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh.
Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar, drawing near
Falls the night.
Thanks and praise for our days
Neath the sun, 'neath the stars', 'neath the sky'
As we go, this we know
God is nigh."
(Butterfield's Lubye, or more popularly known as Taps.)
Krauss was not expecting was for Ozpin to start a song of his own let alone a song that shouldn't exist here.
"Eine Kugel kam geflogen:
Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?
Ihn hat es weggerissen,
Er liegt zu meinen Füßen
Als wär's ein Stück von mir.
Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad.
Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!"
(Rough translation is My Comrade.)
And on that finally note Krauss drew his sword and pointed it skywords. His face was calm but his mind was racing.'How does he know German, let alone a funeral lament!'. Ozpin stepped forward and brought the lit torch he was holding down on each of the pyres as each man lit Krauss kept his sword high and unwavering. As those caskets burned the smoke lingered, seaming to gather slowly around the marksman. Suddenly in a glittering arc Krauss twirled the saber to place it in front of his face in a imitation of a European salute. And as the blade glistened in the roaring pyres, the smoke swept up and back. For the briefest of moments the lone airborne gained wings of the blackest night. The black wings giving Krauss the appearance of a vengeful angel guiding the fallen to their final rest. Ozpin placed a closed fist over his heart in a salute. The two men stood there frozen in the dusk as Krauss watched his men burn away. There ashes and burning embers drifting slowly through the air off the cliff.
After an hour the fires had burned down to nothing but the two remained locked in there thoughts. It was close to 8:30 when Goodwitch finally noticed them missing. After an hour of searching she found them still standing guard over the flickering ashes and embers. She didn't really know what to do. There was obviously something going on between the two men. "William, the h." She stopped when a saber flashed in the pale light of the broken moon as Krauss brought it to a ready position aimed at Glynda. He froze for a split second. Suddenly a look of realization appeared in his eyes as he quickly returned the sword to its scabbard."Christ! Sorry Miss I was lost in thought." Glynda nodded" It's fine. losing brothers in arms is hard. Though I must insist you return to the infirmary." "Alright, Gute nacht vermissen." And with that he walked back. Later that night a fannus student went walking by the same spot. To this day swears she saw an A bloodied, gold armored, angel helping men out of the ashes, and gently guiding them sky with the light of his flaming sword. Said student admits she was high at the time but still the legend persists.
Three days after the funeral Krauss was fully healed. The first thing he did when he got out of the infirmary was go to the gym, grabbing his full combat load along with his saber. A recent shift in US doctrine had gone away with the use of intermediate rounds, like the lightweight 5.56, and brought back the heavier killing rounds, such as the 7.62. During the switch, Reports began showing a lot of wounds suffered were the results of shrapnel hitting limbs and not direct impacts. So the US Army invested a few million into pioneering full coverage armors of a wearable weight. The result was the Combat Operation Medium Armor system, or Coma. The new armor included leg, arm, and waist pieces that would take 7.62 fire quite well, the old SAPI plates were upgraded to take multiple full size rounds. The upgrades decreased casualties by a massive 67%. Unfortunately the new system proved to still be quite heavy weighing in at almost 60 pounds, 20 pounds more than the last generation of armored plate carriers. Most servicemen and women said it was well worth the extra weight. The additional space for MOLLE webbing allowed most units to use smaller kit bags and leave more options available to the individual soldier's preferences.
Krauss began to shadow "box" with his saber and The Old lessons learned through HEMA classes and sparring with friends slowly returned to his form. The Originally slow and clumsy strikes became faster and more accurate, the M45 in his off hand wiping up and clicking dry every few swings to place the nonexistent opposition on the ground. About two minutes into the routine, he pulled a target out to practice his edge alignment. Soon bits of the target littered the floor. After an hour and a half of practice Krauss ran a few miles on the track. Feeling strangely not quite out of breath, he decided to get in some practice with some weights. He loaded a bar with 25 pounds at one end and ran through some shoulder exercises, tossing it from hand to hand, slowly twirling it over his head. (Look up Indian Gada Training.) He got a good hour in before his arms were too sore to continue. He looked at his sidearm and rifle, and realized he hadn't gotten any real shooting in for close to half a month. He decided to head down to the range. Looking at his scroll Ozpin had given him he saw it was about half a mile away. Jogging there to screw with his breathing, he had not expected to run into Ruby. Literally.
"Scheiße! You ok Miss Rose?" He said as he reached down to haul her up. " oh I'm fine! Just didn't see you there. What were you doing down here?" Krauss shifted the sling on his M14. "Bit of target pratice, haven't gotten much recently." "Oh I was just about to test some upgrades on Crescent Rose my self." The two walked into the range, which was empty. Krauss was mildly interested in its layout. Instead of the booth setup that you'd find on Earth, Beacon had something closer to walled off rooms with Holographic targets. "What does your weapon do?" Asked Ruby. "What? It accelerates small pieces of metal to high speeds to kill a target. Just like any other guns." He stated a little confused at Ruby's question. "No I mean does it transform into something like an ax, or sword." Krauss unslung His rifle and cocked it twice ejecting a 7.62 and handed it to her. "Remember when I said I don't have aura?"Ruby nodded. "Well what's the point of trying to get close to someone when a single round can kill you. The only multi use weapons I've seen were my former squad's under barrel grenade launcher, and some spec ops guy had mounted a really small shotgun underneath his gun." She handed the round back."Aww that means you don't use mechashift." Krauss asked "Mechashift?" A glimmer of, Well something sprung into Ruby's eyes. She quickly pulled Crescent Rose from her back and expanded it."Throne above! That thing is massive!" Glancing down the shaft he noticed a magazine poking out." Um is that a magazine?" "Yep it's my very own a scythe with a integrated high impact sniper rifle I call her Crescent Rose!" Krauss just stared for a few seconds."wait you made that!" Ruby nodded." Of all the combos I've seen and heard of that sounds the least practical." Now Krauss stupidly failed to realize that he had basically insulted Ruby's child. Ruby smiled dangerously. She dashed over to the controls for the rooms targets pressed a few buttons and started a simulation. Ruby muttered "Impractical? I show him." A half dozen belwolves appeared. Krauss quickly ducked out of the room and stood near the window. The targets charged. Swinging her scythe in an upwards arc she impaled the the first target with a pull of the trigger she cut the target in half. The next wolf had most of its torso blasted from a pair of shells. A third tried to sneak up on her, it was immediately met with the spear tip at the butt of the shaft. the stab accompanied by the recoil of firing went straight through the wolf and out its back. Swinging the weapon to smack blunt side into another target, the corpus of the previous victim flew off at the end and knocked the final target into a wall. Turning to face the last victim she jumped at a loud bang. Krauss had snuck back through the door and was holstering his pistol. Ruby yelled "Hey that was my kill!" "Got to be faster Немного Красный." "Hun?" "I changed languages again didn't I." Ruby nodded. "That always annoyed the hell out of everyone it's hard enough when I do with two languages, but with vier полностью le lingue, it's almost impossible." Krauss continued slipping in and out of German, Italian, Russian and English attempting to explain something. Ruby had no idea what he was saying.
Eventually Krauss stopped his rant and walked up to the target controller. He hit the replay button. Walking back to the center of the room Krauss pulled his 45 out and pulled his saber from its sheath. After a few seconds, the Beowolves appeared. Quickly fixing his aim on the lead one he squeezed the trigger, a .45 rocketed out and bit the hologram dead in the center of its chest. Numbers 2 and 3 met a similar fate, collapsing a comfortable distance away. the fourth one lept and went to bring a clawed hand down on Krauss. with a slapping motion Krauss whacked the hand away with his saber. the Grimm landed awkwardly and was unable to stop Krauss's kick witch flipped it on its back the Colt barked twice and plastered the ground with skull. Number 5 tried to go for a low swipe. The blow connected and sent Krauss to the ground. "Not this time." Muttered Krauss. The muzzle of the colt meet the chin of the hologram and fired. As he scrambled to his feet, he spotted the last target. He brought his pistol to bear only to realize the slide was locked back. Quickly depressing the slide lock and shoving it in his chest holster, He Switched hands and raised the saber. The hologram charged. he brought the saber down in a sweeping cut near the neck. It connected and cut deep, nearly decapitating the target. The almost headless corpse was suddenly flung to the side, it hit the far wall with a thud. "That was kind of impressive." Said Ruby. She folded her scythe back into its compact form. " you're not too bad yourself miss Rose. Never would I think I'd see someone using a scythe in combat." " I wanted to ask why'd you stopped using your pistol?" Taking the M45 from its holster Krauss reloaded it, leaving the chamber empty."I was out of ammo. There was no way I could have changed magazines fast enough." " But you only fired like seven shots!" "Yep that's pretty standard for .45 ACP In fact it hasn't changed in over a hundred years." Ruby was puzzled. "You don't use a dust mag?" " A what? " you know a dust mag! Solid crystal dust that you shave bits off and accelerate." (Think Mass Effect, it's the only way I can explain Ren, Blake, Pyrrha, Coco, White Fang guns having limitless ammo and not eject shells.) Krauss's reply was a predictable "Ruby my world has no dust." "Oh I kinda forgot that." She stated dejectedly. "Well it was nice talking to you, I have to go now." With that Krauss adjusted his sling and walked off.
